Spoiled honeymoon cruelty to in-laws ground for divorce, says Delhi High Court

A spoilt honeymoon and subjecting the husband and his family to “worst kind of mental cruelty” by levelling false accusations, have been held as grounds for divorce in a case by the Delhi High Court.

The High Court has dubbed the case as an “exception” in which “the marriage could not take off right from inception” between the couple who were in the age group of 30 plus at the time of marriage and were “quite mature”.

While allowing dissolution of their 12-year-old wedlock, it noted that the husband and wife returned with “bitter memories and a spoiled honeymoon” in which she had resisted consummation of marriage and later subjected him and his family to mental cruelty by levelling false accusations.

The remarks were made in the judgement by a bench of Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Pratibha Rani, which dismissed the plea of a woman who had challenged the verdict of a trial court allowing the man’s petition seeking dissolution of their marriage on grounds of cruelty.

“The respondent/husband was able to establish that during their honeymoon not only consummation of marriage was resisted by her, even thereafter causing embarrassment and humiliation accusations have been made against him and his entire family,” the bench noted in its judgement.

The bench said the conduct of the woman was such that it was not possible for the man to bear such kind of cruelty.

“It is a marriage which could not take off right from inception as the worst kind of mental cruelty was faced by the husband during his honeymoon and thereafter. All his efforts to save the marriage by arranging various meetings, visiting the parental home of the wife...could not save this marriage,” the bench said.