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Shri Rakesh Raman vs. Smt. Kavita

Civil Appeal · 2023 INSC 433Decided 26 Apr 2023
Civil Appeal No. 2012 of 2013
Sudhanshu Dhulia · J.B. Pardiwala

Background

The husband and wife married in 1994 and their relationship quickly deteriorated, marked by repeated separations, allegations of abuse from both sides, and multiple criminal complaints filed by the wife against the husband (under Sections 498A/406 and 323/324 IPC), all of which ended in his discharge or acquittal. The husband obtained a divorce decree from the trial court on grounds of cruelty and desertion, but the Delhi High Court reversed this, holding that the wife's filing of complaints did not by itself amount to cruelty and that desertion was not proved. By the time the case reached the Supreme Court roughly 25 years had passed, the couple had lived together for barely four years, had no children, and every court-ordered attempt at mediation or reconciliation had failed.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that while merely filing complaints is not automatically cruelty, the sheer number of criminal cases filed by the wife against the husband, all ending in discharge or acquittal, combined with 25 years of complete separation, absence of cohabitation, and total breakdown of the relationship, together amounted to cruelty being inflicted on both sides by the continuation of the marriage itself. Citing precedents like Naveen Kohli v. Neelu Kohli and Samar Ghosh v. Jaya Ghosh, the Court reasoned that a marriage broken down irretrievably, kept alive only as a legal fiction, itself constitutes a form of mental cruelty under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act. It restored the trial court's divorce decree (though for different reasons) and set aside the High Court's judgment, additionally directing the husband to pay Rs. 30 lakh as permanent alimony, with the divorce taking effect only once that amount is deposited.

Lesson Learnt

Even where irretrievable breakdown is not itself a statutory ground for divorce under Indian law, a marriage that has completely and permanently broken down, evidenced by decades of separation and repeated litigation, can itself be treated as a form of cruelty justifying divorce, and courts may use this reasoning to bring genuinely dead marriages to a legal end.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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