Delhi High Court on Mental Cruelty by Wife: False accusations, separation for 28 years constitutes mental cruelty against husband

Mental Cruelty

In the recent case of Naresh Kr. Babbar v. Seema,1 the Delhi High Court has observed that a

persistent act of a long-separated wife to pursue unmerited litigation against the former husband

and his family members amounts to mental cruelty. The case involved annulment of marriage

of a couple who had married in 1992, but were living separately since 1995. This separation of

almost 28 years, along with the false complaints constituted ‘grave cruelty’, the court said.

-Earlier Developments

The woman (Respondent) had filed a case under Section 498A (Husband or relative of husband

subjecting woman to cruelty), Sections 504 and 506 (Criminal Intimidation), in which the

husband and his relatives had undergone a long trial which resulted in acquittal. Further, a

revision petition by the respondent had also been dismissed unmerited. Therefore, the wife’s

gruelling pursuit of litigation over such a prolonged period was held to be an act of cruelty.

-Sapinda Relationship

In this case, it was found the husband and wife were within the prohibited degrees of sapinda

relationship. The marriage was held void under Section 11 of The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

The respondent wife contended that there was a custom in their ‘Jhang’ community which

validated such marriages. However, the court held that in order to avail protection of custom

for violation of Section 5 (v) (Sapinda Relationship), the custom had to be inexistence before

the enactment of the HMA in 1955, and it had to be proved that the custom was observed in

the community uninterruptedly.

-Bench

The observations were given by a Division Bench comprising of Justice Suresh Kumar and

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna.