Irretrievable breakdown of marriage, characterized by prolonged separation and lack of emotional connection, constitutes a valid ground for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act, and can be interpreted as a form of cruelty.

ORDER

Leave granted.

2. The appellant and the respondent before this Court are husband and wife who were married on 12.05.2007 as per Hindu rites and rituals, at the maternal house of the respondent at Udaipur in district Gomati, Tripura. The husband resides in Agartala (Tripura) where presently he is posted as DGM (Executive Engineer on adhoc basis) in Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL for short). The wife is also well-educated and qualified and is presently employed as a teacher in Brilliant Stars School at Udaipur.

3. Within three years of matrimonial life bitterness started creeping in the relationship between the couple. The husband alleges that the wife is disrespectful towards his old parents and gives preference to her job as a teacher ignoring her household responsibilities. Wife alleges torture and cruelty, and demand of dowry at the hands of her husband and in-laws, and has stated before the courts in no uncertain terms that she can live with her husband only if he comes and stays at Udaipur, Tripura. She is not willing to live with her husband at Agartala. The admitted fact as of now is that the two have been living separately, the husband at Agartala and the wife at Udaipur, for the last 12 years. The couple have a 12 year old daughter who lives with the mother.

As per the appellant, the respondent left her matrimonial house on 16.05.2010 ostensibly for spending vacations with her parents. At that time she was on the family way, having two months of pregnancy. Since then the respondent has not returned to her matrimonial home. She gave birth to a female child on 11.01.2011. In spite of many requests, she never returned to Agartala. The girl child is with the wife who is presently teaching in a school where she earns around Rs.31,085/ (Rupees Thirty One Thousand Eighty Five per month) and the girl child, now twelve years of age, also studies in the same school, where her tuition fee is exempted.

4. Earlier the husband had filed a petition under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (for Restitution of Conjugal Rights) on 09.11.2012 before Family Court, Agartala, Tripura (subsequently transferred to Family Court, Udaipur) which was dismissed on 29.08.2013. An appeal was filed before the High Court which was subsequently withdrawn. The petition for dissolution of marriage on ground of cruelty and desertion, was later filed by the appellant before the Family Court, West Tripura, Agartala on 15.02.2017 which was also dismissed on 08.03.2019. The appeal filed by the husband/appellant against that order was also dismissed by the High Court vide its order dated 28.02.2022. It is this order which is under challenge before this Court. The High Court has taken into consideration all aspects including the fact that the couple is living separately for the last more than 10 years but that in itself was not considered to be cruelty. This is what it said :-

“True it is that, in some cases the High Courts considering the dead marriage as the generator of perennial trauma considered the same as cruelty and passed the decree of divorce. But in the case in hand, we find that the matrimonial bond is not ruptured beyond repair and moreover, we find that the parties were never at such bitterness of their relation that they cannot give a new lease of life to their relation. Hence, that plea also cannot be accepted in view of the law as enunciated in Samar Ghosh (supra).”

Regarding the plea of irretrievable breakdown of marriage the Court expressed its inability to grant divorce on that ground also. This is what it said :-

“The question that has been raised by Mr. Kar Bhowmik, learned senior counsel for the appellant that the marriage has been broken irretrievably or beyond repair, cannot be accepted by us and we find life in the relation. Only thin walls, built up by emotions and ego, are keeping the spouses apart. Hence, the relation can very well be retrieved. As such, that ground stands discarded. In this juncture,