A wife mocking or taunting her husband for being unemployed amounts to mental cruelty, the Chhattisgarh High Court has ruled. Hearing the case, the court dissolved the marriage of a 52-year-old man, granting him a divorce on these grounds, Live Law reported.
The two-bench division, comprising Justice Rajani Dubey and Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad, delivered the judgment stating, "A spouse's behaviour, including verbal altercations and unreasonable demands, can constitute mental cruelty, warranting a decree of divorce."
Anil Kumar Sonmani earlier applied for a divorce, but the lower family court refused it. The High Court accepted his appeal, overruled the earlier decision and granted him a divorce.
The couple reportedly got married in 1996 in Bhilai and has two children, a boy and a girl. The court heard that their marriage faced troubles after Sonmani's wife earned her PhD degree and got a high-profile job as a principal in the school.
Sonmani, a lawyer by profession, said that during the Covid-19 pandemic, when courts were closed, his wife repeatedly taunted and humiliated him, made unreasonable demands, and even called him unemployed.
The bench in a statement said, "It has been clearly deposed that after obtaining a PhD degree and securing a high-paying job as a Principal, the respondent's behaviour towards the appellant changed significantly."
"She became disrespectful, frequently taunted him for being unemployed during the Covid-19 pandemic, and engaged in repeated verbal altercations over trivial matters. These acts... clearly amount to mental cruelty as recognised under law," it said further.
Sonmani reportedly revealed that the situation worsened in 2020 when his wife left the house with her 19-year-old daughter, leaving their 16-year-old son with him. She even signed a letter, saying she was cutting all ties with her husband and son and submitted it to a police station in Bhilai.
Before delivering the verdict, the court noted that the wife neither appeared in court nor filed any response despite being served notice.
The High Court pointed out that the husband's claims were uncontested and ruled his wife's behaviour as cruelty and desertion under Sections 13(1)(i-a) and (i-b) of the Hindu Marriage Act.
