The Honourable Supreme Court held on 08th March, 2017 (Wednesday) that isolated incidents of cruelty against spouse cannot be a ground to seek divorce, and marriage could be dissolved only if such incidents were of a recurring nature. A Bench of Justices R K Agrawal and A M Sapre also ruled that a husband or wife could not seek divorce on the basis of incidents which took place years before the petition was filed. It set aside the order of a family court and the Delhi High Court which had granted divorce to a man on the basis of alleged incidents of cruelty against him, which took place a decade before he approached the Court for dissolution of marriage. Six years after the marriage was dissolved by the family court, the Apex Court allowed the plea of his wife for restitution of her conjugal rights.
"A petition seeking divorce on some isolated incidents alleged to have occurred 8-10 years prior to filing of the petition cannot furnish a subsisting cause of action to seek divorce after 10 years or so of occurrence of such incidents. The incidents alleged should be of recurring nature or continuing one and they should be in near proximity with the filing of the petition", the Bench said. The Court noted that the couple had starved living together after the alleged incidents, which means that her conduct was condoned by the husband and he could not raise that ground. The Court refused to take into account a recent incident when the wife had chided him in his office in the presence of his colleagues.
"In the first place, no decree for divorce on one isolated incident can be passed. Secondly, there could be myriad reasons for causing such isolated incident. Merely because both exchanged some verbal conversation in the presence of others would not be enough to constitute an act of cruelty unless it is further supported by some incidents of a like nature", the Court said.
"In our considered opinion, both the courts below failed to take note of this material aspect of the case and thus committed jurisdictional error in passing a decree for dissolution of marriage", the Apex Court said and set aside the divorce order. It said the couple should live together to take care of their two daughters and bring peace, harmony and happiness in their life.
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