The Rajasthan High Court has held that denial of cohabitation by the wife as well as filing of a false criminal case against the husband, amount to cruelty.

The division bench of Justice Inderjeet Singh and Justice Sandeep Taneja was hearing an appeal against Family Court's rejection of a divorce application filed by the appellant-husband.

It was the case of the husband that the marriage was solemnized in 2004, and the wife's behaviour towards him or his family members was cruel since the beginning of the marriage. She used to threaten them of committing suicide, and then filing a false criminal case.

The husband further submitted that she had denied him co-habitation since 2005, and also filed a case against him under Section 498-A, in which he was eventually acquitted. It was argued that they were living separately since 2010, and there was no chance of any reunion.

After hearing the contentions, the Court highlighted the facts that the marriage was solemnized in 2004, and there was no cohabitation since 2005 based on wife's denial, as alleged by the husband. Further, the Court took note of the husband's acquittal in the case of dowry demand that was instituted by the wife against him.

Reference was made to certain rulings by the Supreme Court on cruelty, including Rakesh Raman v Kavita, and Narasimha Sastry v Suneela Rani, and in the aforementioned background, the Court concluded that denial of cohabitation by the wife and filing of false case against the husband, amounted to cruelty.

Further, the Court stated, “the husband and the wife both are living separately since the year 2010 and there is no chance of their re-union at this point of time. In our considered view, asking both them to live together at this point of time amounts to cruelty to both of them, as there is no chance of their re-union.”

Hence, the order of the trial court was held to be perverse and set aside. Accordingly, the Court granted the decree of divorce, dissolving the marriage.

Title: M v S

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 373

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