The Bombay High Court has dissolved a marriage that had collapsed more than a decade ago, ruling that repeated threats or suicide attempts by a spouse amount to mental cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act. The court also pulled up the husband for filing a false affidavit denying his second marriage, calling it “perjury” and “criminal contempt.”
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam A. Ankhad, in a judgment delivered on November 14 made available on November 19, allowed the appeal of Yogendra Lahu Bhoir against a 2019 Family Court order that had rejected his divorce plea. Mr. Bhoir married Prema in May 2006, but the couple separated in September 2012. Litigation began in 2013 and dragged on for over a decade.
The husband cited desertion, suspicion, and repeated suicide threats as grounds for divorce. The High Court agreed, noting that such conduct makes it impossible for the other spouse to live in a peaceful environment.
“When such conduct is repeated, whether through words, signs or gestures, it becomes impossible for the other spouse to continue in the matrimonial relationship in a peaceful environment,” the Bench observed.
The judges criticised the Family Court for ignoring these allegations and stressed that prolonged separation itself amounts to cruelty.
