Living Away From Spouse Amounts To Cruelty, Is Ground For Divorce, Rules Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court has granted divorce to a man on the grounds of cruelty by wife, who refused to stay with him, despite agreeing to the same in court.

According to the complainant, he and his wife got married in 2002, but six years later she left for her parents' home allegedly after a fight over his financial condition and never returned.

She also filed a petition demanding maintenance from her husband. The husband then filed a case for restitution of conjugal rights following which the wife agreed to get back to her husband and got the petition withdrawn.

But after the husband withdrew his petition in the court, she refused to join him.

In 2013 the husband filed for a divorce in which the woman opposed. Despite this, the family court had granted the divorce in 2014.

The woman later challenged the lower court order in the High Court.

On December 11 the Karnataka High Court upheld the divorce granted by the lower court and held that living away from your spouse amounts to cruelty and is a ground for divorce under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act.

¡°The spouse does not care about the deserted one and ceases to live together renouncing his/her marital obligations and duties,¡± the court said.

The court noted that the wife's actions amount to desertion and cruelty and said that there could be no single formula to determine cruelty.

¡°Cruelty can also not be inferred by applying any formula because the said question is to be determined keeping in view the social status of the parties, their financial and other conditions, the atmosphere and the kind of employment or vocation which they carry out would all be important to infer whether on the given set of allegations it has become difficult for the plaintiff to live with the other side and the behaviour of such degree which amounts to the cruelty,¡± the HC said in its judgement.

The court also noted that despite promising to reunite with her estranged husband, for six years the woman did not make an effort to do so.

¡°From 2014-2019 she has not shown any interest in joining her husband. The conduct of the appellant-wife is clear that she has no desire to live with the husband till the date of filing of the petition which is a period more than the statutory period of two years,¡± the HC said.