Mental cruelty, its effects vary from 'person to person': SC

Mental cruelty, a major ground for grant of decree of divorce, cannot be measured with arithmetical exactitude as it varies from society to society and person-to-person, the Supreme Court has said.
Granting divorce to a Banglore-based doctor couple on the singular ground of mental cruelty, a bench of justices S J Mukhopadhaya and Dipak Misra said social status of a person, alleging cruelty, is also key factor in measuring it and its effects.
"Mental cruelty and its effect cannot be stated with arithmetical exactitude. It varies from individual to individual, from society to society and also depends on the status of the persons.

"What would be a mental cruelty in the life of two individuals belonging to particular strata of the society may not amount to mental cruelty in respect of another couple belonging to a different stratum of society," the bench said.
Dealing with the facts of the case, the bench said the husband deserved the divorce on the ground of cruelty as he was being subjected to humiliation.
It also said that false allegations were levelled against him and his relatives were dragged into the matrimonial dispute and they amounted to mental cruelty.

"We are disposed to think that the husband has reasons to feel that he has been humiliated, for allegations have been made against him which are not correct.

"His relatives have been dragged into the matrimonial controversy, the assertions in the written statement depict him as if he had tacitly conceded to have harboured notions of gender insensitivity or some kind of male chauvinism, his parents and he are ignored in the naming ceremony of the son, and he comes to learn from others that his wife had gone to Gulbarga to prosecute her studies," the court said.
The bench was hearing an appeal filed by the woman, a doctor, against the Karnataka High Court order.
The High Court had reversed the decree for restitution of conjugal rights granted in her favour by the family court and rather, granted divorce to her husband, also a doctor.