Husband’s Repeated Taunts, Comparisons With Other Women Qualify As Mental Cruelty
Case: xxxxxxxx v. xxxxxxxxxx
Coram: Justice Anil K Narendran and Justice C. S. Sudha
Case No.: MAT.APPEAL NO. 513 OF 2021
Court Observation: “The constant and repeated taunts of the respondent/husband that the petitioner is not a wife of his expectations; the comparisons with other women etc. would certainly be mental cruelty which a wife cannot be expected to put up with.”
“Continuous ill-treatment, cessation of marital intercourse, studied neglect, indifference on the part of the husband, and an assertion on the part of the husband that the wife is unchaste, are all factors which lead to mental or legal cruelty.”
A set of facts stigmatized as cruelty in one case may not be so in another case. The cruelty alleged may largely depend upon the type of life the parties are accustomed to or their economic and social conditions. It may also depend upon their culture and human values to which they attach importance. Judges and lawyers, therefore, should not import their own notions of life. It would also be better there is less reliance upon precedents.
“Mental cruelty may consist of verbal abuses and insults by using filthy and abusive language leading to constant disturbance of mental peace of the other party and in the present case from the pleadings and testimonies adduced before the Court, the Court observed that the petitioner cannot be expected to put up with the demeaning attitude and behaviour of the respondent towards her.” “The absence of intention should not make any difference in the case, if by ordinary sense in human affairs, the act complained of could otherwise be regarded as cruelty. Intention is not a necessary element in cruelty. The relief to the party cannot be denied on the ground that there has been no deliberate or wilful ill-treatment.”
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