The Punjab & Haryana High Court recently granted a divorce to a man after a long period of 31 years of marriage. The court ruled that the man had been subjected to constant harassment by his wife, who had been pressurizing him to live separately from parents. In fact, the wife had already left him a long time ago.
Interestingly, the wife still has the option to challenge the divorce ruling in the Supreme Court. The High Court also noted that the man and his family had been falsely implicated by the wife in the past but were later acquitted.
The couple had a traditional Hindu wedding in Una in November 1990 and lived together as husband and wife. However, the wife refused to live with her husband’s family and did not want him to start his medical practice in Oel village, where his family resided.
In January 1992, when the wife was pregnant, she left her husband and gave birth to a son in her parents’ village of Hazara in Jalandhar district. The husband and his family visited her with customary gifts, but her parents refused to let her go with them unless they agreed to a separate residence.
In 1996, the couple reached a family compromise and the wife agreed to join her husband with their son. However, she soon began insisting on living separately from his parents. When she failed to return to her matrimonial home, the husband filed for divorce.
The Jalandhar Family Court dissolved the marriage on October 15, 2015, but the wife was dissatisfied with the decision and appealed to the High Court.
The honourable High Court observed,
“The husband has been able to prove on record that the wife was constantly harassing him to live separately from his parents and was insisting upon him to open his clinic in Jalandhar, where her parents live. It was the wife who left the matrimonial home when she was in the family way.”
The court further added,
“Despite this, the husband, after their child’s birth, visited Hazara village in Jalandhar district along with customary gifts, sweets, clothes, etc and requested the parents of his wife to let her accompany him. But her parents insisted on a separate residence for their daughter and made it clear that only then would she and the child accompany him.”
After carefully examining both sides, the court found that the marriage had irretrievably broken down and there was no possibility of reconciliation or cohabitation. The court also noted that the woman had filed a case under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, which was eventually dismissed due to her non-appearance in court. This indicated a desire to prolong the litigation and delay the proceedings.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/punjab-and-haryana-high-court-upholds-divorce-as-wife-wont-stay-with-man-unless-he-separated-from-parents/articleshow/97239605.cms