Wife’s repeated threats to end life amounts to cruelty, Orissa HC upholds divorce

Cuttack: Repeated threats of suicide from a wife to her husband amounts to cruelty, the Orissa High Court noted while upholding the divorce granted by a family court.

“Repeated threats to commit suicide, or worse, to harm the spouse and their family members, transcend mere emotional outbursts, they represent a gross misuse of emotional vulnerability and a blatant form of psychological warfare. The effect of such behaviour is not just confined to the four walls of the matrimonial home but leaves a lasting scar on the mental health and emotional stability of the aggrieved spouse,” a two-judge bench of Justices B P Routray and Chittaranjan Dash observed in its March 19 ruling.

The bench was hearing a case challenging the August 2023 order of the family court in Cuttack granting dissolution of marriage subject to payment of Rs 63 lakh as permanent alimony by the husband, who is the CEO of an IT company and is based abroad.

“The findings of the Family Court are rooted in sound legal reasoning and supported by overwhelming evidence. The wife’s actions, viewed collectively, meet the threshold of mental cruelty as defined under Section 13(1) (i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act.”

The court further stated that law cannot compel a person to endure a marriage that has become a source of suffering and torment. “The institution of marriage rests upon the pillars of trust, compassion, and mutual respect, that form the very essence of a harmonious marital bond. In the instant case, however, the fabric of this relationship has been irreparably torn apart by a sustained pattern of mental cruelty inflicted upon the husband by the wife,” it added.

The couple got married in August 2003. The husband, who is in his 50s, sought divorce on grounds of cruelty in 2009 and his primary grievances included constant quarrels, financial control, repeated threats of suicide and the forced eviction of his elderly parents from their home by her with help of local goons.

Following the court order, the woman, in her 40s, moved the HC the same year, seeking restitution of her conjugal life.