The Bombay High Court has recently ruled that a wife filing false complaints against her husband and in-laws in an attempt to correct his behaviour constitutes cruelty within marital relations.
The ruling comes as Bombay High Court’s division bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Advait Sethna refused to interfere with the decision of a Family Court, which while granting divorce to a couple noted the fact that the wife had lodged a false case against the husband and his family members, which caused them mental cruelty, reported LiveLaw.
The report said the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court added that once there is a dent to such essential values (of marital relationship), on the foundation of which a marriage rests, by a false and draconian action of a criminal prosecution being resorted by either spouse, it is in the realm of cruelty which would be a ground for divorce under Section 13(1)(i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
“Thus, such actions on the part of the wife of resorting to a false prosecution, was certainly a sufficient ground, entitling the husband for a divorce on the ground of cruelty. The principles of law in this regard are well settled,” Livelaw quoted the ruling.
Bombay HC’s Ruling on False Allegations by Wife
In a case where a wife lodged multiple complaints against her husband, the court dismissed her plea, stating that such actions are not acceptable in a healthy marital relationship.
The judges highlighted that resorting to false accusations undermines the very foundation of trust and respect that should exist between spouses.
The ruling came as the Bombay HC heard a plea by a 36-year-old divorced woman seeking restitution of conjugal rights with ex-husband with whom she had lived for eight years.
The woman challenged a February, 2023 order of the trial court that granted decree of divorce in a plea by the man who stated cruelty and desertion by the wife.
The man claimed that in 2012, his wife left him and returned to her parents’ house and initiated various proceedings against him and his family members causing them mental cruelty.
The bench noted that it was evident that the wife lodged proceedings under the provisions of Domestic Violence Act, 2005 against husband and his family members and also filed a plea for restitution of conjugal rights.
The couple got married in 2004 and were living together till 2012.
The man submitted that the ex-wife even filed false complaints against his father and brother for allegedly molesting her, in which they were acquitted but suffered trauma and humiliation in the society, Indian Express reported.
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