Mangayakarasi
V.
M. Yuvaraj
FACTS
Marriage between the parties solemnized on April 8, 2005 was the result of love between the parties. The wife is 6 years elder then the husband and the couple gave birth to a girl child. After some time of marriage, the couple started quarrelling that brought serious conflicts between the parties, in pursuance of the same the husband filed a petition in court for seeking dissolution of marriage under Section 13 of the Hindu marriage Act, on the ground that his wife is of quarrelsome character and often uses abusive language in front of family, relatives and friends and that she also visited the collage where the husband is employed and created a mess and insulted him in front of his students and staff. He further alleged that after five days of this incident, she abused him and left the matrimonial home on 12-04-2007. Husband contended that he issued a legal notice against the wife but she did not give any response to it.
On the other hand, the wife filed a petition before the court for restitution of conjugal rights under Section 9 of Hindu marriage Act. The court accepted the petition of wife and rejected the petition of the husband. The wife rejected all the allegation of the husband stating that it is difficult for her to travel from her husband’s house to the institution where he was employed as it was 120 km away and as for the legal notice she said that at that time she was pregnant. Her husband convinced her by saying that his parents were the one who sent her the notice, and he also told her that he will resolve the same soon. And after 25 days to this she gave birth to a girl child.
The husband filled a second appeal in high court. The High Court allowed the appeal and dissolved the marriage and concluded that the parties are living separately since 2007 and are litigating by which it can be said that there is already breakdown of marriage and the wife also filed a criminal case alleging that her husband demanded dowry and committed mental cruelty against her. The court also observed that the evidence has been tendered. On the observations made by the High Court, the court granted divorce on the ground of wife filing a criminal complaint resulting in acquittal of the husband.
Held
The Supreme Court held that the observations and substantial questions framed by the High court are not justifiable, thus, the judgment passed by the High Court is to set aside and the court restored the judgment passed by the Session Court and allowed the appeal. The Supreme Court further stated that filing a criminal complaint by one party to the marriage and that resulting in acquittal cannot be treated as the ground of divorce.