Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
Section 13(1)(ia)—Cruelty—What is—Essence of cruelty lies not merely in overt acts of violence but equally in conduct that inflicts deep emotional distress, humiliation, or renders matrimonial cohabitation intolerable.
[Para 27 & 28]
Section 13(1)(ia)—Divorce—Ground of cruelty—When one spouse chooses to invest emotional intimacy, secrecy, and sustained communication in another person outside the marriage, while maintaining a façade of propriety, it results in mental anguish, humiliation, and emotional abandonment of the highest order.
[Para 39]
Section 13(1)(ia)—Divorce—Ground of cruelty—Where dissolution of marriage is sought on the ground of cruelty under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, and not on the ground of adultery, the alleged paramour or third party is neither a necessary nor a proper party to the proceedings, and there is no requirement to implead them as such.
[Para 55]
Section 13(1)(ia)—Grant of decree of divorce in favour of husband—Ground of mental cruelty by wife—Appeal—Wife’s continuous and unexplained communications with two individuals, coupled with her evasive deposition and inconsistent statements—Failure of wife to produce even a single document that could substantiate the existence of a genuine professional relationship with either of them—Infidelity need not always be proved through direct or ocular evidence—Continuous conduct that perpetuates a situation wherein more than a mere reasonable apprehension of unfaithfulness or moral betrayal persists, coupled with the failure of the spouse who is alleged to have caused the genesis and continuity of such a condition of the mind, to effectively dissipate or dissuade through their testimony, the existence of such a state of affairs, constitutes mental cruelty within the meaning of Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act—Wife’s conduct cannot be dismissed as a mere act of social cordiality or innocent indiscretion—Cumulative effect of wife’s conduct satisfied the statutory test of mental cruelty under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Act—Appeal dismissed.
[Paras 32, 33, 38, 40, 41 & 56]