Levelling derogatory and defamatory allegations of sexual nature against the husband as well as the father-in-law would certainly amount to mental cruelty and thereby constitute a valid ground for grant of divorce, the Madras High Court has ruled.
A Division Bench of Justices J. Nisha Banu and R. Sakthivel held so while reversing a 2023 order passed by a Family Court in Chennai which had refused to grant divorce to a couple. The Bench allowed an appeal preferred by the husband and dissolved the marriage.
The appellant’s counsel V.R. Kamalanathan told the court the couple got married in September 2015 and had a child in July 2016. However, their domestic life faced a turmoil forcing the husband to seek divorce in October 2017.
The appellant had accused his wife of having stayed in the matrimonial home for only 51 days in the first two years of their marriage and said she spent the rest of the time at her maternal home. He also accused her of ill-treating him. He said she was highly quarrelsome and verbally abusive. After the filing of the divorce petition, she had lodged a police complaint accusing her father-in-law of having made sexual advances towards her and also alleging that the appellant was a pervert who had relations with other women. However, the counsel said that the complaint was subsequently withdrawn . He contended that levelling such false allegations would certain amount to subjecting his client to mental cruelty.
On the other hand, the woman contended that she withdrew the complaint because her husband had promised to live with her. However, when he failed to keep up his promise, she filed a petition for restitution of conjugal rights and got it allowed by the Family Court.
Authoring the verdict for the Bench, Justice Sakthivel said, the woman ought to have revived the criminal complaint and proved the charges against her husband and father-in-law before a criminal court of law if she had really been tricked to withdraw it based on a false promise.
Since the allegations remain unsubstantiated as on date, “such defamatory averments made in the police complaint would certainly cause stigma and mental agony to the appellant as well as his family, and in the facts and circumstances of this case, amounts to cruelty,” the Bench held.
Further, taking note that it was eight years since the couple got separated and that efforts taken by the High Court for mediation had failed last year, the Bench dissolved the marriage between them but made it clear that the woman and her child would be entitled to maintenance.
Published – June 14, 2025 01:00 am IST
