The High Court of Chhattisgarh has granted divorce to a woman on the grounds that a husband indulging in excessive drinking instead of discharging his duties amounted to mental cruelty to his wife and children.
The order was recently passed by the Bench of Justice Goutam Bhaduri and Justice Sanjay Agrawal on a petition filed by a woman seeking dissolution of her marriage on the grounds of cruelty.
The High Court noted that while the couple had two children, the husband never paid their school fees. When the wife asked for money to pay the fees or for other household goods, he allegedly abused and assaulted her.
It observed that since the wife was not employed, it was very natural that she would depend on her husband for household needs and to give her children a quality education and good life
The High Court was apprised that after consuming liquor, the husband used to abuse and assault his wife. It was further submitted that the condition got aggravated to the point where he even sold household goods to buy alcohol.
Since the husband did not cross-examine the wife on these allegations during the family court proceedings, the High Court deemed the same as accepted.
Noting that many of the allegations of cruelty by the husband arose because of his allegedly excessive drinking habits, the High Court observed that the husband was mentally cruel to his wife.
It opined out the conduct of the wife showed that she tried to save the marriage as otherwise on an earlier occasion, the application seeking divorce on the similar ground of excessive drinking would not have been withdrawn on the promise of the husband that he would mend his behaviour.
The Bench then proceeded to dissolve the marriage that took place on February 2, 2006 between the couple. The Court also ordered the husband to pay Rs 15,000 per month to the wife as maintenance.
The wife was represented by Advocate Barun Kumar Chakrabarty. No one appeared for the husband.
(Case title: Payal Sharma vs Umesh Sharma)