Bilaspur, Sep 24 The Chhattisgarh High Court has dismissed a man’s plea seeking divorce from his wife, holding that his allegations that she used to describe him as dark-complexioned and fat could not be treated as sufficient grounds for granting divorce.
A division bench of Justice Parth Prateem Sahu and Justice Sachin Singh Rajput refused to interfere with the decision of the family court, which had rejected the man’s divorce petition and allowed his wife’s application seeking return of her ‘streedhan’ or gifts and assets given by her parents.
The HC had reserved its order on June 25, and pronounced it on September 18.
The man, Aksh Ghosh (28), a resident of Janjgir-Champa district had challenged the judgment and decree passed on August 28, 2024, by the Additional Principal Judge, Family Court, Janjgir.
The family court had rejected his application, seeking dissolution of marriage, while allowing his wife’s application and directed him to return the gifts given to her by her parents within one month.
According to the HC order, Ghosh and Pooja Seet (25) of Raigarh district, got married on March 7, 2019, in a village in Raigarh district.
The woman lived with her husband and his family for around two to three months after the marriage.
The husband alleged that during this period, his wife treated him with hostility, threatened to implicate him in false cases and frequently went to her parental home. He also alleged that she went to Rajasthan to attend a relative’s marriage without his consent and returned after about 25 days.
She subsequently suffered a miscarriage of twins, he said.
According to the husband, the woman’s mother thereafter took her to Raigarh and, despite repeated efforts on his part to bring her back, she refused to return.
In her written statement, the woman denied the allegations, except the fact of marriage. She alleged that her husband was having an illicit relationship with another woman and that after she came to know about it, he started consuming alcohol.
She further alleged that he abused her and did not properly take care of her, including by failing to provide her adequate medical treatment during her pregnancy.
According to the woman, when she fell ill, her mother took her to a hospital in Raigarh for treatment.
After her recovery, she repeatedly requested her husband and his family members to take her back, but they did not do so, she claimed.
Her mother subsequently submitted a complaint to the Superintendent of Police, Raigarh, on February 24, 2020. The woman also initiated proceedings under the Domestic Violence Act against her husband and his family members before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Raigarh, the order said.
The woman claimed that her husband himself was unwilling to continue the matrimonial relationship because of his alleged relationship with another woman and sought dismissal of his divorce petition.
The HC, after examining the evidence, held that the husband had failed to establish cruelty and desertion on the part of his wife so as to warrant dissolution of the marriage.
“Though the appellant/husband has made several allegations against the respondent/wife yet none of them have been substantiated by leading any cogent evidence,” the HC said.
“The man has alleged that his wife used to brand him as being a black complexioned or fatty-shaped but they cannot be taken to be sufficient grounds for granting a decree of divorce to him,” it said.
The court said the husband had failed to establish that his wife was living with her parents without reasonable cause.
The HC held that the husband had failed to prove the requisite “animus deserendi”, or intention to desert, on the part of his wife.
The high court concluded that the family court had properly appreciated the evidence while rejecting the husband’s plea for dissolution of marriage and found no reason to interfere with its judgment and decree.
The appeal was accordingly dismissed without any costs, and the court directed that the decree be drawn accordingly, the court said.
(PTI News)
