Levelling “unscrupulous” allegations against spouse amounts to mental cruelty warranting divorce: HC

Court says refusal to have conjugal relationship at very inception of marriage is also cruelty

The Madras High Court has granted divorce to a couple on the ground that reluctance on the part of one of the spouses to have conjugal relationship at the very inception of the marriage, and when the couple is young and newly-wed, would amount to subjecting the other partner to mental cruelty.

Justices T. Raja and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy also held that wife’s act of levelling “unscrupulous and unsubstantiated” allegations of the husband being a drunkard, addicted to pornography, attempted to kill her by stacking cracker boxes under her bed and stole her jewellery, would also amount to subjecting the husband to cruelty.