Husband Abandoning Wife & Defaulting In Paying Maintenance Forfeits Right To Contest Dissolution Of Marriage: Rajasthan High Court

While allowing dissolution of marriage, Rajasthan High Court held that the husband's conduct of total abandonment of legal proceedings, deliberate violations of judicial directions, and persistent non-payment of court-ordered maintenance, amounted to sustained mental cruelty, making it impossible for the wife to reasonably be expected to live with the husband.

The division bench of Justice Arun Monga and Justice Yogendra Kumar Purohit observed that deliberate and intentional abandonment by the husband of both his matrimonial obligations as well as legal obligations amounted to a forfeiture of his right to contest the matter.

The Court was hearing an appeal filed by a wife against the order of the Family Court that rejected her petition for dissolution of marriage on the grounds of cruelty.

The Court perused the matter and highlighted that the husband deliberately did not participate in the mediation and abandoned the proceedings as well as his defence.

Furthermore, even in relation to the maintenance proceedings, wherein a recovery warrant was issued against him, he neither appeared before the Court, nor paid any maintenance for nearly 3 years.

The Court further stated that in the proceeding under the Domestic Violence Act, the husband absented himself since 2022, compelling the court to proceed ex-parte.

In this background, the Court held that, “The respondent has, with complete impunity, persistently failed to discharge his statutory and matrimonial obligations and has subjected the appellant to sustained harassment, humiliation, and financial deprivation…The respondent's actions are not isolated lapses but form a consistent pattern of neglect, indifference, and calculated harassment”.

It was observed that his willful refusal to maintain the appellant along with his blatant disregard for the courts' authority, struck at the very foundation of matrimonial obligations and attracted cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act. The Court held that the appellant had sufficient cause to abandon the marriage in light of this cruelty.

The Court further opined that the challenged order also revealed that the wife had led clear, consistent and cogent evidence in support of her allegations of cruelty.

In this background, the Court observed that the Family Court failed to appreciate the cumulative effect of the husband's conduct and erroneously examined every incident in isolation, thereby overlooking the settled law that mental cruelty had to be assessed on totality of circumstances.

Hence, the Court held that in light of the holistic view of the matter, husband's conduct signified his implied consent to allowing of the appeal by setting aside the order of the Family Court.

Accordingly, the order of the Family Court was quashed, and the dissolution of marriage was allowed.

Title: Smt. Khushboo v Manohar

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 75

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