The Madras High Court Thursday ruled that the refusal of a spouse to cooperate in a conjugal relationship after 16 years of marriage cannot be grounds for granting divorce or dissolution of the marriage.
A division bench of Justices R Subbiah and C Saravanan gave the ruling while dismissing an appeal by Krishnaraj of Erode district against the family court order issued on October 2016, declining divorce on that ground.
The bench observed that it's not a case of the appellant stating that the marriage wasn't consummated and that the respondent refused sexual intercourse soon after the marriage.
The appellant cannot contest after 16 years of marriage that he was denied conjugal bliss and subjected to cruelty, it said, adding he had subjected his wife to cruelty by having an "extra-marital relationship" with his aunt's daughter.
Pointing out that the appellant had sent 200 to 300 text messages to his cousin, the court said it was evident that the appellant had insisted his cousin to marry him, hence he was a "wrong-doer."
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