Mumbai: The Thane Ad-Hoc District Judge and Additional Sessions Judge granted divorce to a Thane-based man who had approached the court against his estranged wife on grounds of cruelty.
While passing the decree, the court held that despite the husband making several attempts to live with his wife, she neither returned to her matrimonial home for cohabitation nor responded to the several notices sent by the court.
The court, in its order, stated: “The evidence of the petitioner clearly shows that the respondent married him by blackmailing him and, after the marriage, physically and mentally ill-treated him. It further appears that the wife left her husband in August 2020 of her own accord. Despite several attempts by him, the wife never returned for cohabitation. Therefore, the husband has proved that he was deserted by the wife for a continuous period of not less than two years immediately preceding the presentation of the petition, and the wife has treated him with cruelty. Hence, he is entitled to a decree of divorce.”
According to the divorce petition, the now-estranged couple was married in 2015 in Kolkata. In the petition, the husband, who was 29 at the time, claimed that the wife, then 25, had started misbehaving with him even before they entered into wedlock. On one occasion, the wife insulted him in front of her brothers by calling him a “psycho.”
“Due to her adamant behavior, the husband informed her brother that he did not feel good about the marriage and wanted to cancel the wedding, but she started threatening him with suicide if he did not marry her. Thus, he entered into a forced arranged marriage,” reads the petition.
The complainant husband further claimed that matters worsened post-marriage, as the wife began abusing him and assaulting him with kitchen utensils. Given this behavior and the fact that she stopped residing with him, the husband filed a divorce petition in May 2024, seeking separation from his wife.
