That the marriage has irretrievably broken down is to be factually determined and firmly established. For this, several factors are to be considered such as the period of time the parties had cohabited after marriage; when the parties had last cohabited; the nature of allegations made by the parties against each other and their family members; the orders passed in the legal proceedings from time to time, cumulative impact on the personal relationship; whether, and how many attempts were made to settle the disputes by intervention of the court or through mediation, and when the last attempt was made, etc.
Mental Cruelty
It is needless to say that the FIR is not an encyclopedia. It is sufficient for Criminal Administration of Justice to set in motion if the FIR discloses a cognizable offence. FIR is not a substantive piece of evidence, but it can only be used for corroboration and contradiction of the prosecution story.
Shobha Rani Versus Madhukar -Reddy12/11/1987-We are, however, not concerned with criminal offence either under the Dowry Prohibition Act or under the Indian Penal Code. We are concerned with a matrimonial conduct which constitutes cruelty as a ground for dissolution of marriage. Such cruelty if not admitted requires to be proved on the preponderance of propabilities as in civil cases and not beyond a reasonable doubt as in criminal cases.
whether the conduct of the respondent would fall within the realm of mental cruelty. Here the allegations are levelled by a highly educated spouse and they do have the propensity to irreparably damage the character and reputation of the appellant. When the reputation of the spouse is sullied amongst his colleagues, his superiors and the society at large, it would be difficult to expect condonation of such conduct by the affected party.
It is well settled that giving repeated threats to commit suicide amounts to cruelty. When such a thing is repeated in the form of sign or gesture, no spouse can live peacefully. In the case on hand, the Appellant-husband has placed adequate materials to show that the Respondent-wife used to give repeated threats to commit suicide and once even tried to commit suicide by jumping from the terrace.
The concept of mental cruelty cannot remain static; it is bound to change with the passage of time, impact of modern culture through print and electronic media and value system, etc. etc. Hindu Marriage Act, 1955—Section 13—Divorce—Cruelty—Rejection of divorce petition—Allegation of abuse to mother and father in presence of relatives and neighbours—Plea of desertion cannot be accepted in absence of […]
26/3/2007-Samar Ghosh vs Jaya Ghosh-Law of divorce based mainly on fault is inadequate to deal with a broken marriage. Under the fault theory, guilt has to be proved; divorce courts are presented concrete instances of human behaviour as bring the institution of marriage into disrepute.
The court had in July last year directed the creation of Family Welfare Committees in every district, which would verify the allegations of dowry harassment received by the police or magistrate. The arrest of a person could only be made after the report of the committee is received, it had then said. Challenging the order a Petitions have been preferred under Article […]
The question arises what kind of cruel treatment does clause 13(ia) contemplate? In particular, what is the kind of mental cruelty that is required to be established’? While answering these questions, it must be kept in mind that the cruelty mentioned in clause (ia) is a ground now for divorce as well as for judicial separation u/S. 10. Another circumstance to be kept in mind is that even where the marriage has irretrievably broken down, the Act, even after the 1976 (Amendment) Act, does not permit dissolution of marriage on that ground.
KEYWORDS:-DIVORCE-MENTAL CRUELTY-INSANITY OF WIFE- DATE:-30-09-2011- “Husband had placed ample evidence on record that the Respondent-wife is suffering from “mental disorder” and due to her acts and conduct, she caused grave mental cruelty to him and it is not possible for the parties to live with each other, therefore, a decree of divorce deserves to be granted in favour of the […]
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