Wife willing to reunite; court dismisses husband’s plea for divorce

The Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court dismissed a husband’s plea for divorce, ruling that the wife is willing to continue living with him, but it is the husband who does not wish to live with her, and therefore, in this case, plea of irretrievable breakdown of marriage cannot be accepted.
With this ruling, a division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Om Prakash Shukla on October 1 denied the husband’s request for a decree of dissolution of marriage in favour of the husband who had sought directives for the same. He had filed an appeal challenging a decision from a Unnao family court, which had dismissed his 2016 matrimonial case seeking to dissolve the marriage.
In this case, the husband sought divorce on the grounds of cruelty and desertion but failed to substantiate either claim.
The court stated, “It is true that the parties are living apart for a considerable period of time, this is not the only test of irretrievable break down of marriage. Divorce is found on fault theory.”
The court observed, “We have already discussed that the fundamental element of desertion is animus deserendi, which has not been proved in this case. With regard to cruelty, it is evident that the respondent/wife has pointed out that she is willing to live with her husband, whereas the appellant/husband has not proved the instances of cruelty or desertion against his wife supported by consistent and coherent evidence of witnesses and has deposed that he cannot live with the respondent at any cost.”
The court stated that the husband failed to prove the allegations of cruelty against his wife. While wife is willing to live with him, it is the husband who does not want to live with her. Therefore, the plea of irretrievable break down of marriage cannot be accepted. With this finding, the court dismissed the appeal.
MANOJ KUMAR SINGH