The main legal point established in the judgment is that to prove cruelty for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act, instances of cruelty must be established with specific reference to date, time, place, and manner, and the ill-conduct must be persistent for a lengthy period. The judgment also clarified that irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not a ground for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act.

JUDGMENT :

KARAMJIT SINGH, J.

1. This order will dispose of the above titled appeals filed by the appellant-husband against the judgment and decree dated 24.12.2013 whereby the divorce petition filed by the appellant under Section 13 of Hindu Marriage Act (in short ‘HMA’) against his wife-respondent on the ground of cruelty and desertion was dismissed and judgment and decree dated 10.12.2012 whereby the petition filed by the respondent-wife under Section 9 of HMA was decreed against the appellant-husband by the Court of District Judge, Family Court, Hisar.

2. The facts of the case in nut-shell are that the appellant filed divorce petition under Section 13 HMA in which he inter-alia pleaded that the parties got married on 19.5.2005, as per Hindu Rites and ceremonies, at Lucknow. Out of this wedlock one male child was born on 7.11.2007 and now the parties are living separately since 28.11.2009.

3. As per the appellant, after marriage, the parties started living in Delhi, where the appellant was working. Then they shifted to Ghaziabad, where father and sister of the appellant were also living with them. Sister of the appellant got married in December, 2006. The respondent got her Doctorate degree in 2007 and prior to that she went to Hisar to pursue the said degree, where her parents were residing. The entire educational expenses of the respondent to pursue Ph.D. were borne by the appellant.

4. In the divorce petition, the appellant further pleaded as follows:

The respondent was not ready and willing to keep father and sister of the appellant, in her matrimonial home. She used to abuse and insult father of the appellant and due to her cruel behaviour, the father of the appellant finally started living in Lucknow. The respondent used to allege that the appellant was having illicit relations with his younger sister, who got married in December, 2006. After the marriage of sister of the appellant, when the parties were coming back from Lucknow to Delhi along with their servant Pappu, on the way the respondent started abusing the appellant and other members of his family without any reason and she got down from the car and thereafter the respondent sat in the car only after great persuasion. It was further pleaded that the respondent was temperamental, adamant, unfriendly and having suspicious nature. Earlier, she used to allege that the appellant was not desirous of having child. They were blessed with one son in November, 2007, but even thereafter there was no change in the behaviour of the respondent. She used to ill-treat and insult the appellant and other members of his family in presence of his relatives, friends and colleagues. Due to such an obnoxious behaviour of the respondent, relatives, friends and colleagues of the appellant stopped coming to his house. In 2008, when the appellant was transferred to Mumbai, both husband and wife shifted to that place. The appellant at that time was deputed in sales department and was having late working hours. Whenever the appellant got late, the respondent refused to open the door and as such he was to stay outside the house for the whole night. Once in November, 2008, when he got late, the appellant was forced to sleep in his car throughout the night. In March, 2009 the respondent left the matrimonial home without informing the appellant and she came back on the next day along with her mother, brother, uncle and aunt, all of whom apologized to the appellant, on behalf of the respondent. The appellant used to provide all the finances to the respondent to run the household and also for her personal needs. Even ATM card was also provided to her. Despite this the respondent used to ask the appellant to handover his entire salary to her. She used to do shopping for her own relatives by using aforesaid ATM card. The respondent also treated her son with cruelty. She used to beat him. The respondent always tried to malign the character and image of the appellant by spreading rumours amid the relativ