“Husband and wife are two pillars of the family. Together they can deal with any situation, balancing the family in all circumstances. If one pillar gets weak or breaks, the whole house crashes down. The pillars can withstand all the abuses together, the moment one pillar gets weak or deteriorates, it becomes difficult to hold the house together. When one pillar gives up, and puts all the burden on the other pillar, then it cannot be expected that one pillar will single-handedly hold the house together,” said an order dated May 2.
The division bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh was dealing with an appeal moved by the appellant-husband to quash and set aside an earlier Family Court order, in which it granted divorce by in favour of the respondent-wife under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
In the present case, even though the parties have been married for nearly 24 years, they have not spent a major part together as husband and wife. They separated on April 13, 2010, and have not lived together since.
The bond between the parties has irretrievably broken down and the respondent was subjected to repeated harassment at the hands of the appellant, making it impossible to reconcile their differences.
“We are, therefore of the view, that the respondent has well established the ground of mental cruelty by the appellant, in the light of Samar Ghosh v. Jaya Ghosh, (2007) 4 SCC 511,” read the order.
The counsel for the appellant has requested to modify the decree of divorce dated August 10, 2021 passed in favour of the respondent under Section 13(1)(ia) of the HMA, into a decree of divorce by way of mutual consent under Section 13B of the HMA. The respondent has not consented to divorce by mutual consent. For this reason, we cannot grant a divorce by mutual consent to the parties, it stated.
