A Division Bench of Justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Supratim Bhattacharya made the observation while upholding a decree of divorce granted to a husband on the ground of mental cruelty.

The couple married under the Special Marriage Act on June 18, 2009 and had a child in April 2013.

They separated in 2014 after matrimonial disputes arose.

The husband subsequently approached a family court seeking divorce on the ground of mental cruelty.

The husband alleged that the wife repeatedly made false accusations against him and his family, filed criminal complaints and insisted that he live separately from his dependent widowed mother.




In December 2021, the family court granted him a divorce, prompting the wife to appeal before the Calcutta High Court.

The wife had argued that she returned to the matrimonial home several times after the couple separated and lived with her husband as a spouse for 7-8 days on each occasion.

According to her, this showed that the husband had forgiven the alleged cruelty.

The Court rejected the argument. It held,

“Stray incidents of living together as husband and wife do not amount to condonation.”

Referring to Dastane, it noted that while normal sexual relations during continued matrimonial cohabitation may, in appropriate circumstances, indicate forgiveness and restoration, stray acts after separation are capable of different explanations and cannot automatically be treated as condonation.




The Court found that the wife had made several serious but unsubstantiated allegations against her husband and his family.

The Bench said that grave, baseless allegations that demean a spouse or assassinate their character could themselves constitute mental cruelty.

The Court clarified that the wife could independently seek permanent alimony.