The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently upheld a divorce decree to a  man on account of the desertion and cruelty meted out to him by his wife, who filed false and frivolous cases against him.

The Husband/appellant moved a petition under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act,1955 before the family court seeking dissolution of his marriage with the respondent on the ground of cruelty and desertion.  The same was dismissed by the Additional District Judge, Patiala in May 2017. Challenging the same, he moved to the High Court.

The petition was looked into by a bench of Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Nidhi Gupt.

The husband submitted before the High Court that he got married to the respondent/wife in Novemebr 2012 and after marriage, they cohabited together as husband and wife only for 9 months.

In his plea, the Husband claimed that his wife was dominating and disrespectful towards him and his family and that she picked up quarrel for no reasons. It was further alleged that she frequently behaved with him, using bad language.

It was submitted that his wife left him in September 2013 without any reason and she took away all her dowry articles including the ones given to her by the appellant’s parents and she did not join the appellant’s company thereafter, accordingly it was pleaded that the respondent had deserted the appellant.

Regarding the allegations of cruelty, the husband said that his wife had filed innumerable false complaints against the appellant and his family and also filed false complaints before the Army Wives Welfare Association.

On the other hand, the wife denied all the allegations and stated that in fact she had been deserted by her husband. She also claimed that her husband used to torture her and made illegal demand of dowry and would beat her mercilessly and never paid any maintenance to her.

Finding faults with the observations and the order of the family Court, the High Court, at the outset, noted that the wife had levelled the most objectionable allegations against the appellant and his family (which were not substantiated) including the imputations made against her father-in-law stating that he used to behave inappropriately towards her.

“In our view, the conduct of the parties in the present case evidences that there are irreconcilable differences between the parties, rendering the marriage, as of today, a mere legal fiction. It is not in dispute that the parties are residing separately since 2013. Even mediation attempts between the parties have remained unsuccessful,” the Court remarked as it concluded that with a view to do complete justice, and put an end to the agony of the parties, it was requried to allow the instant appeal.

Thus the order passed by the family court was set aside and the appeal of the huywas allowed by the court.

The court also granted permanent alimony of a sum of Rs.18 lacs to the wife as full and final settlement while noting that he Husband had already paid a sum of Rs. 23lakhs to the wife in maintenance during the litigation.

Case title – Ratandeep Singh Ahuja v. Harpreet Kaur [FAO-M-182 of 2017]