Himachal High Court recently observed, while rejecting a man’s claim that his wife has deserted him, a wife cannot be forced to live in her matrimonial home when the husband is keeping another lady with him.
Justice Satyen Vaidya dismissed a husband’s plea for divorce on the grounds of allegations of desertion and cruelty.
The Court said, “Respondent (wife) had justifiable ground to live separately as no wife can be forced to live in the matrimonial home with husband keeping another lady with him.“
The Court was responding to an appeal challenging a family court order, whereby there was a plea by a husband for a divorce under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act had been dismissed.
The husband claimed to prove here wife’s act of desertion, challenging the order of the family court.
The High Court, however, found that the husband’s allegations of cruelty were general, and not completely confirmed. In the plea by the husband, no specific instance of cruelty was clearly mentioned or pleaded, noted the Court.
Instead, the husband had simply claimed that his wife’s attitude towards him as well as his family had turned hostile for some time due to which she kept picking quarrels before she finally left the matrimonial home.
The Court highlighted that the Hindu Marriage and Divorce (Himachal Pradesh) Rules, 1982, specifically require the allegations of cruelty to be disclosed in the petition with sufficient particularity along with the place and time of the Act alleged and other facts related to them.
The Court noted that the only thing that deserves to go on record is the fact that the wife had left her matrimonial home in 1995 and living separately from her husband since then.
Even so, the Court found that the matter of desertion was framed wrongly and the “pleading of necessary jurisdictional facts for the ground of desertion were clearly missing in the petition.“
Pertinently, Court found that the wife had given sufficient justifiable reasons for living apart.
When asked about her decision to live separately, the wife had told the family court that there was another lady residing with him whom he brought home after marrying. They had two sons born out of this relationship, the wife claimed.
The High Court also noted that the husband had not been sufficiently able to counter allegations made by her wife. Moreover, the wife had provided witnesses before the family court, who supported her allegation on her husband that he had married another lady and residing with her.
The Court found that the claim of desertion was not substantiated.
And therefore, the husband’s divorce plea was dismissed and the family court’s order upheld.
Source: https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/wife-matrimonial-home-husband-another-lady-himachal-pradesh-high-court
