Suicidal tendency of wife is no ground of divorce for husband

Submitted by asandil on 5/17/2014

As per the recent observations and considerations of the court, a man does not suffer from any kind of inhuman treatment if his wife makes efforts to commit suicide, and it cannot be a ground for the husband to seek divorce from her, the court noted while rejecting the plea filed by the man who wanted an annulment of their marriage.

According to the court petition that was filed, the wife had not got ready when they need to attend the wedding ceremony of a close relative of the husband. Therefore, the man left without his wife. Later, the woman tried to commit suicide by consuming poison. The man then filed for divorce. Causing, his wife’s suicidal tendency was adversely affecting his health and the health of his family members.

Due to these reasons, he had sought divorce on grounds of cruelty. In the family court, the wife explained that she had done so because her husband had refused to give her some time to fill milk in their child’s feeding bottle and that he had left in a huff to attend the wedding ceremony, leaving the house without her (the wife). She said in her reply that her husband’s behaviour made her feel lonely and insecure.

Advocate Paresh Desai said, “…there was total lack of understanding by the petitioner’s (man’s) family members towards the wife. It appears that no love, affection and compassion or caring has been shown towards the woman due to which she had taken the step of consuming poison” Desai said that the man would appeal against the order in the high court.

However later on, one more case was there, here, husband had sought a divorce from wife on the ground that she was temperamental, frequently fought with him and threatened to commit suicide. In her statement wife had admitted that she had attempted suicide twice, but she went to the high court challenging the order.

The high court, however, concurred with the family court’s ruling “because the behaviour of the appellant by persistently threatening and attempting suicide would constitute mental cruelty in law”.

The division bench said: “A husband cannot be expected to continue living with the wife in such circumstances.” Wife’s lawyer argued she was driven to suicide because of ill-treatment by her in-laws, but the court pointed out that “the attempts to commit suicide continued even after the couple moved to a new house and began to live separately from the family of the husband”.

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