IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CIVIL APPEAL NO.8871 OF 2019
(Arising out of SLP(Civil) No.1981 of 2019
CORAM :
HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE ASHOK BHUSHAN & HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE NAVIN SINHA
DATE- 19/11/2019
In the above case law the husband who got acquitted in the 498A Trial was granted divorce decree on the ground of Cruelty.
FACTS OF THE CASE
1) In the present matter Rani Narsimha Sastry is the appellant/ husband and Rani Suneela Rani is the respondent/ wife.
2) The marriage between the appellant and the respondent was solemnized on 14.08.2005 at Temple situated in East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh.
3)After marriage appellant and respondent lived together until 17.01.2007 and thereafter they have been living separately for more than 10 years.
4)The appellant has filed O.P. No.109/2007 in the Court of Principal Senior Civil Judge, R.R. District, L.B. Nagar under Section 13(1)(i-a) of Hindu Marriage Act, praying for dissolution of the marriage with the respondent.
5) The petition was filed basically on two grounds cruelty as well as mental illness of the respondent.
6) The trial Court dismissed the petition stating that on basis of the evidence adduced by appellant he failed to prove the grounds of cruelty and mental illness. The appellant aggrieved by this order filed an appeal in the High Court at Hyderabad.
7) The High Court also dismissed the appeal stating the grounds as invalid and eventually the matter came before our Hon’ble Supreme Court in which the present appeal is filed.
OBSERVATION OF THE COURT
While deciding the matter the Supreme Court Observed that:“The petition filed by appellant for dissolution of marriage on the ground of cruelty and mental illness has been rejected . With regard to second ground i.e. mental illness of the respondent, no serious efforts have been made to question the findings of the Court below which ground has rightly rejected by the Court below.
The Court below has also observed that respondent is working as Sanskrit Lecturer, hence, there is no merit in the submission of the appellant that respondent is suffering from mental illness. The ground which was pressed by the appellant before the Trial Court and the High Court was ground of cruelty.
Hence the only issue to be determined by the court was:
Whether the ground for divorce under Section 13(1)(i-a)has been made out or not?
The bench observed that the charges under Section 498A of IPC are of high gravity and the husband has undergone trial which resulted into his acquittal. There has been recording of serious allegation being levelled against each other. The appellant/husband in the present case seeking divorce under section 13(1)(i-a) decree has rightly established the ground of cruelty.
JUDGMENT /RULING
The Apex Court allowed the appeal and granted the divorce decree to the appellant .
The Apex Court took the view of the High Court into consideration which states that :
“Merely because the respondent has sought for maintenance or has filed a complaint against the petitioner for the offence punishable under Section 498-A of IPC, they cannot be said to be valid grounds for holding that such a recourse adopted by the respondent amounts to cruelty.”
The Apex Court dissented this view of the High Court and stated that:
It is true that it is open for anyone to file complaint or lodge prosecution for redressal for his or her grievances and lodge a first information report for an offence also and mere lodging of complaint or FIR cannot ipso facto be treated as cruelty. But when a person undergoes a trial in which he is acquitted of the allegation of offence under Section 498-A of IPC, levelled by the wife against the husband, it cannot be accepted that no cruelty has meted on the husband.”
CONCLUSION
Filing of IPC 498A cases by women on husbands is very common in context of overall matrimonial proceedings. People are aware of their misuse as a legal weapon and a tool of harassment, though many are unaware that it is also used as a tool for leverage.Usually, many husbands settle cases before seeing their final end, and they don’t get to use full benefit of the acquittal in IPC 498A case had it run through full trial.
This particular case may open door for those men against whom false allegations are levelled by their wives under section 498A IPC since, in this particular case, the husband waited patiently and used the fact of acquittal in magistrate court in IPC 498A case to get decree of divorce on ground of cruelty.
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