Allahabad High Court: 'Free-willed' wife meeting civil society members sans forming an illegal relation is not cruelty against husband

The Allahabad High Court in the case Mahendra Prasad vs. Smt. Bindu Devi observed that a 'free-willed' wife's acts of travelling alone or interacting with members of civil society without engaging in any illegal or immoral relationships cannot be considered an act of cruelty against her husband.

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The bench comprising of Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh and Justice Donadi Ramesh was hearing the present matter.

The bench in the case stated that a conduct of wife of only seeking to keep alive a legal fiction of her marriage, without any reason to keep alive that relationship, and refusing to cohabit with her husband may amount to cruelty against the husband.

The court in the case observed and has allowed the appeal of husband to challenge a family court's judgment and order wherein the court dismissed the divorce suit he had instituted.

However, the husband had pressed for a divorce decree on two grounds: mental cruelty and desertion by the wife.