Mumbai, Aug 20 With changing dynamics in a marriage, mere annoyance and normal disagreements do not constitute mental cruelty or ground for divorce, the Bombay High Court has said, refusing to grant divorce to a man who claimed his wife quarrelled with him and his mother.
Cruelty should be such that it is not reasonably expected for the couple to live together, the HC's Nagpur bench comprising Justices Urmila Joshi Phalke and Raj Wakode observed in the order passed on Wednesday.
The court also said that cruelty in a marriage cannot be determined by a few isolated instances and the entire married life should be assessed as a whole.
"There have been marked changes in the life around us and also in matrimonial duties and responsibilities," it said, adding that cruelty in one case may not be the same in another.
"The cruelty alleged may largely depend upon the type of life the parties are leading or their economic and social conditions. It may also depend upon their culture and human values to which they attach importance," the HC said.
Any marriage has its normal share of quarrels and disagreements, and hence cruelty, especially mental cruelty, has to be expressly distinguished, it noted.
"The allegations of cruelty cannot be considered on trivial issues. General allegations of cruelty do not constitute cruelty in the eyes of law so as to grant decree of dissolution of marriage on that premise," the HC stated.
Mere annoyance or irritation by one spouse may not constitute cruelty, the court said. Cruelty should be such that it is not reasonably expected to live together, it added.
The HC dismissed a petition filed by a 44-year-old man challenging a family court order refusing to grant him divorce on the grounds of cruelty and also ordering him to pay maintenance of Rs 5,000 per month to his wife.
The couple got married in 2003. While the man claimed that his wife left the matrimonial home in 2011 after subjecting him and his parents to mental cruelty, the wife said she had returned to her husband's home, but he refused to cohabit with her.
The man alleged that his wife was short-tempered, used to regularly quarrel with his mother on trivial issues and had also blamed him for not being able to conceive.
The woman claimed that her husband and his family used to ill-treat her for not being able to conceive.
