‘Wife’s long abstention from marriage sans reason cruelty against spouse’ : Calcutta HC

Soumyadip Mullick, MP, 9 Jan 2025, Kolkata: Observing that long abstention of the wife from conjugal life without reason amounts to mental cruelty against husband, Calcutta High Court granted decree of divorce to the husband as the wife was absent from her matrimonial home for 24 years till date. 

The bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and Justice Subhendu Samanta was moved by the husband after the trial court refused to grant him a decree of divorce. 

In the case, both the husband and the wife had alleged cruelty against each other but none could prove their allegations, according to both the trial court and the High Court. The trial court had both dismissed the wife’s suit for restitution of marriage and the husband’s counterclaim for divorce. 

However, the High Court took into account the facts of the case where the wife had left her matrimonial home on October 3, 2004 and never returned for 24 years till date or even wrote to the husband. 

The couple got married under the Special Marriage Act on December 4, 2003. Taking into account that although the husband did not allege desertion against the wife, the court observed: “...the very act of the wife leaving her matrimonial home without justified reason and not resuming conjugal life with the appellant-husband for long 24 years tantamounts to mental cruelty against the husband.” 

The court said that the trial court ought to have decreed the counterclaim of the husband for divorce. It observed that dismissal of the wife’s suit for restitution of conjugal rights due to lack of evidence was sufficient reason for the granting divorce instead of “prolonging the agony between the parties, when the shelf-life of their marriage has long expired”. 

The court granted the decree of divorce to the husband but did not interfere with the part of the trial court judgement where it had dismissed the wife’s suit for restitution of conjugal rights. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/mamata-to-hold-mega-meeting-with-doctors-on-february-24-594195