Coercing husband to stay in a dead marriage is mental cruelty

FACTS

1.  The Appellant and the respondent are the judges of district court in the state of West Bengal. They tie the knot of marriage in June 1992, as per the provisions of the Special Marriage Act, 1955. They had a daughter born in 1993. There is bitterness in the relationship of marriage between the parties and they started living separately from 2000.
2.  The appellant filed a petition for divorce under Section 27 of Special marriage Act. The appellant submits that the conflict started arising because of improper behavior of the respondent and not showing due respect to his father when his health was in poor condition.
3. The appellant alleged that the respondent deserted him and refused to give custody of the child. It was also submitted that the respondent did not even visit when he was seriously ill and she always used immoderate language and threatened the appellant for not filing the divorce petition or else she herself will file a criminal complaint against him.
4. The respondent in his written statement denied all the allegations made by the husband and pleaded for dismissal of the divorce petition filed by him. After filing written statement she had not participated in any proceeding. The civil court of Calcutta dismisses the petition filed by the husband.

HELD

Trail court
The trail court dismissed the petition stating that the appellant failed to prove cruelty and allegations made by him. The court further examined the evidences cited by the appellant and concluded that appellant failed to make out the grounds for divorce.

High court
The High Court of Calcutta also dismissed the appeal filed by the appellant. The High court after knowing that both appellant and respondent are judicial officer, made attempt for conciliation between the parties but neither of the party showed up before the court. High court even after knowing the fact that both parties were residing separately since 2000, dismissed the appeal holding that irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not a valid ground for divorce and that the appellant failed to prove the allegation of cruelty. Hence, the same is dismissed.

Supreme Court
A notice has been issued to the respondent in October 2012 to explore the resolution of the matrimonial dispute and the parties were directed to appear before the Mediation center of Supreme Court in November, 2012 but the respondent didn’t appear. A fresh notice has been ordered in August but once more the respondent didn’t appear.
It was submitted before the court that respondent deserted the appellant for about 17 years and refused to come back or to live with him and she didn’t even appear before the court for proceedings even after receiving the notices form the courts which shows her intention of not being interested in living with the appellant. Hence, the court stated that refusal to participate in the proceedings for divorce and forcing appellant to live in a dead marriage would itself constitute mental cruelty. Hence, The Supreme Court in exercising inherited powers vested on court under Article 142 of Constitution of India, dissolved the marriage of the parties holding that where the court finds that the marriage is totally unworkable, emotionally dead, beyond salvage and has broken down irretrievably, even if the facts of the case do not provide for a valid ground for divorce in law, the divorce would be granted. Hence, the appeal and application for divorce is allowed.