The Madras High Court has recently held that if a woman initiates litigation to vindicate her rights, it can never be taken as mental cruelty to the husband.
Justice R Vijaykumar of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court kept aside the divorce decree that a lower court was granted making ‘mental cruelty’ the ground. He further said that if a woman files a case to seek custody of her child or to stake claim to her property right, it is only for the vindication of her rights and not to deliberately harass her estranged husband.
He further told that “This Court is of the considered opinion that the divorce petition lacks pleadings with regard to the mental cruelty, desertion and the deposition of the husband relating to the said allegation do not support the case of the husband. The litigation initiated by the wife is only to protect her property rights and her custody of her son. When the initiation of such proceedings is for the vindication of her rights, the said proceedings can never be considered to be a ground for mental cruelty.“
The Court was hearing a woman’s appeal challenging a lower court’s order that had allowed her estranged husband’s plea in a divorce petition filed by him.
The lower court had noted that the wife was harassing the husband by filing petitions one after another. It had further held that though there was no notable instance of cruelty, the continuous filing of petitions caused him to suffer mentally.
The wife moved the High Court and challenged the order of the lower court.
During the hearings, the High Court found that the husband had left the matrimonial home and had married another woman without giving divorce to his first wife. It also noted that the main cause of dispute was the custody of the couple’s son and another cause of conflict was over ownership of their residence.
Justice Vijaykumar also noted that the husband had alleged his wife of adultery but couldn’t prove it.
So, the High Court said that the first appellate court had erred in holding that the wife’s intention was to harass her estranged husband by filing back-to-back petitions against him.
The High Court said, such kind of finding was not legally sustainable and was without any solid basis and therefore it allowed the second appeal filed by the wife.
Advocate EV Kumaresan presented the wife.
While the Advocates AN Ramanathan and M Bindran presented the respondent husband.
Source: https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/wife-initiating-litigation-vindication-rights-not-mental-cruelty-madras-high-court
