AGENCIES
The Punjab and Haryana high court has upheld the divorce granted by a family court in favour of a man, saying that calling a husband hijda (eunuch) is an act of mental cruelty.
The division bench of justice Sudhir Singh and justice Jasjit Singh Bedi was hearing a woman’s plea against the divorce granted in favour of her husband by a family court in July this year.
“If the findings recorded by the family court are examined in the light of the judgments of the Supreme Court, it comes out that the acts and conduct of the appellant-wife amount to cruelty,” the high court bench said.
“Firstly, terming the respondent-husband as hijda and calling his mother to have given birth to an eunuch, is an act of mental cruelty,” it added.
“‘…Considering the overall acts and conduct of the appellant-wife and further considering that the parties had been living separately for the last six years, it was rightly found by the learned family court that the marriage between the parties has ruptured beyond repair and it has become a dead wood,” the order stated.
The husband, who had initiated divorce proceedings, had claimed that his wife was a ‘late riser’. She would ask his mother to send her lunch in the bedroom on the first floor and would call her upstairs 4-5 times a day, ignoring that his mother was suffering from arthritis.
The man alleged that his wife was addicted to watching porn and used to taunt him for not “being physically fit” and wanted to marry some other person, as per the man’s plea.
The woman had denied the allegations and claimed that her husband could not produce any evidence to prove that she used to watch porn sites. She even accused her in-laws of administering intoxicating medicines to her.
