The Delhi High Court holds that a wife making unsubstantiated allegations against her in laws and waging a legal war amounts to extreme cruelty.

The Delhi High Court has allowed an appeal under section 19 of the Family Courts Act, 1984 against the judgment dated 10.02.2020, whereby the Family Court had dismissed the petition of the appellant/ husband, seeking divorce on the ground of cruelty under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
 
The wife had left the matrimonial home as the relationship was strained right from the beginning and that the wife had also filed various criminal complaints and petitions under the Domestic Violence Act against the husband and other family members. Many of these proceedings were either dismissed on merits or for non-perusal. The husband finally filed for divorce under section 
Section 13(1)(ia) of the Act, 1955, which had been denied by the learned Family Court vide impugned judgment dated 10.02.2020.
 
While allowing the appeal the court held thus: 
 
“Every aggrieved person has the absolute right to initiate appropriate legal action and has every right to approach the state machinery. However, it was for her to establish that she was subjected to cruelty by placing forth cogent evidence in support of her allegations. Though filing of a criminal complaint per-se cannot amount to cruelty, however, such grave and indecent allegations of cruelty should be substantiated during the divorce proceedings and in the present case, the respondent has neither substantiated her allegations nor justified her conduct.”
 
Making of such serious and unsubstantiated allegations and waging a legal war against the husband by implicating him and his family members, clearly show the vindictive nature of the respondent and amounts to extreme cruelty towards the appellant/ husband.”
 
“We conclude that the learned Principal Judge, Family Court erred in ignoring the overwhelming evidence of false and defamatory accusations and the multifarious litigations initiated by the respondent/ wife against the appellant/ husband as well as his family members, clearly establish the acts of cruelty by the respondent. We hereby set aside the judgment dated 10.02.2020 and grant divorce on the ground of cruelty under Section 13(1) (ia) of the Act, 1955.”

X v. Y