The Delhi HC on Thursday passed a judgment that a wife denying sex to her husband for long time without any justification amount to mental cruelty and constitutes ground for divorce.

The bench comprising of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Pratibha Rani said, “In view (of) the foregoing discussion, we are of the considered view that the husband has fully established that he was subjected to mental cruelty by the wife by denying sex to him for a long period despite living under the same roof, without any justification and though she was not suffering from any physical disability.”

The court announced its judgment on a petition filed by a man who wants to get divorce from his wife on the grounds that his wife has not allowed him to have physical relations with her for four-and-half-years without any physical disability.

The husband had challenged the trial court order from March, in which the court dismissed her petition on the grounds that the instances of cruelty pleaded by him did not satisfy the standards of cruelty provisioned under Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

The High Court said that although the wife initially appeared before the trial court, her refusal to appear thereafter despite being served notice, led the court to rule against her.

The court said, “The appeal being well founded deserves to be allowed. we grant a decree of divorce in favor of the husband on the ground of cruelty by dissolving his marriage with the wife that had been solemnized.”

By Prajakt K.