In a significant ruling, the Punjab and Haryana High Court recently held that a husband’s unexplained relationship with a woman outside the marriage amounts to cruelty toward his wife, warranting no relief in divorce proceedings.
The Bench comprising Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Sukhvinder Kaur made this observation while dismissing a husband’s appeal challenging the Family Court’s 2023 decision that denied him divorce. The Hindu couple had married in 2011 and share a child.
The husband had sought divorce on grounds of cruelty, alleging that his wife made false accusations of an illicit relationship, causing irreparable harm to their marriage. However, the Court found otherwise, noting that he had admitted to his acquaintance with another woman, with whom he had traveled multiple times by air and train, and had even visited Goa.
“Though, the stand of the appellant-husband is that he had no illicit relations with said XXX, yet we find that maintaining relations with a lady outside the matrimonial alliance that too without any justified explanation, certainly amounts to cruelty and rather, the said fact is sufficient to cause ruptures in the matrimonial alliance of the parties,” the Court observed.
The wife had testified that she once saw her husband with another woman at a park and, upon questioning, was told by him that the woman worked at his company and that he intended to marry her. Further evidence included a compact disc (CD) showing the husband coming out of a flat with the woman and records of a company jointly registered by the husband and the woman.
Rejecting the husband’s claim of lack of evidence, the Court remarked,
“It has been admitted by the appellant (husband) that he had acquaintance with said XXX for a long time and that he had been travelling with her by air and train several times and he had even visited Goa with her. In our opinion, the admission of the appellant-husband regarding his relations with said XXX coupled with the position indicated in Ex.DA clearly shows that it was the appellant-husband, who had been the cause of disturbance in the matrimonial alliance of the parties.”
Though the parties had been living separately since 2018, the High Court emphasized that the husband’s conduct disqualified him from seeking divorce on grounds of cruelty, stating,
“We are conscious of the fact that parties have been residing separately since 2018, but it must be borne in mind that the instant case is not a fit case, where any indulgence can be granted to the appellant-husband, due to long separation, in view of the acts and conduct of the appellant-husband.”
Consequently, the appeal was dismissed, upholding the Family Court’s decision.
