In a recent ruling, the Allahabad High Court observed that the consumption of alcohol by a wife does not constitute cruelty against her husband unless it leads to unwarranted or uncivilized behavior. A Division Bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Om Prakash Shukla delivered the verdict while deciding on a man’s appeal seeking divorce from his wife.
The appellant argued that his wife went out with friends without informing him and consumed alcohol, among other allegations. However, the Court dismissed these claims as grounds for cruelty, stating:
“Consuming of alcohol by itself does not amount to cruelty, if it is not followed by unwarranted and uncivilized behavior. Though consuming of alcohol in middle-class society is still a taboo and not a part of culture, however, there is no pleadings on record to show as to how consuming of alcohol has caused cruelty to the husband/appellant.”
The couple, married in 2015 after meeting on a matrimonial website, had been living apart since 2016, when the wife left the husband along with their son to live in Kolkata. The husband’s divorce plea had earlier been dismissed by a family court in Lucknow.
The High Court addressed the case on two grounds—cruelty and desertion. On cruelty, it noted:
“There is no pleadings on records to show that because of consumption of alcohol, the child born out of the wedlock was weak or unhealthy or there was any problem in the pregnancy of the respondent/wife.”
It further stated that there was no evidence showing how the wife’s alleged phone calls with male friends amounted to cruelty.
“The Appellant/Husband was not able to prove as to what act or instances and on which date and/or period, any cruelty was inflicted on him, so as to make him entitled for a decree of divorce on the ground of cruelty,” the Court observed.
However, the Bench ruled in favor of the husband on the grounds of desertion under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. It found that the wife’s refusal to return to her matrimonial home without reasonable cause constituted desertion.
“It has come on record that when the respondent-wife left the house of the appellant-husband along-with the child, the appellant-husband asked her to come back and live with him, however, she refused to come back, without any reasonable cause.”
The Court also noted the wife’s non-participation in the proceedings as a sign of her unwillingness to reconcile.
Allowing the appeal, the Court concluded:
“We are of the considered opinion that the Respondent/wife has deserted the Appellant/husband without any reasonable cause and he has been willfully neglected and as such a case for grant of divorce on this ground is made out in the peculiar undisputed facts and circumstances of the present case.”
