Cuttack: The Orissa High Court upheld a family court ruling, granting divorce to a physically disabled man in a case where the wife’s repeated derogatory remarks about him were deemed mental cruelty.The couple married on June 1, 2016, but the wife began living with her parents from March 25, 2018, following disputes triggered by her comments about her husband’s condition. She repeatedly insulted him using terms such as “Nikhatu” (worthless) and “Kempa” (stupid), targeting his physical infirmity.Subsequently, the man moved the family court in Puri, which dissolved the marriage on grounds of mental cruelty without awarding alimony. The wife appealed against the decision in the High Court on July 10, 2023.In her appeal, the wife claimed she was forced to leave the matrimonial home and has resided with her parents since 2018. She argued that the cruelty allegations were baseless and that the family court wrongly granted the divorce without providing permanent alimony.The division bench of Justices B P Routray and Chittaranjan Dash recently dismissed the appeal, stating that the wife’s disparaging remarks constituted mental cruelty. They upheld the divorce decree under Section 13(1)(i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, confirming the dissolution of the marriage.“A person is expected to give respect to another person in general and where it comes to relationship of husband and wife, it is expected that the wife should support the husband despite his physical infirmity, if any,” the bench noted, while emphasising that mutual respect is essential in a marriage.
