The Delhi High Court dissolved a marriage of 15 years citing cruelty to the husband after it found that the wife had concealed her mental disability and termination of pregnancy from him.
A Bench of Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Yogesh Khanna granted divorce to the man who had challenged the family court’s order, which dismissed his plea for annulment of marriage.
It was while the high court was hearing the man’s petition for guardianship of their son that it was revealed that the woman had been under psychiatric treatment even before she got married in December 1999.
Abusive
The man told the court that his wife would return late from work, would abuse his family and leave home without information. In 2000, when she was pregnant with their first child, she left home without informing anyone and gave birth to their son at her parents’ house.
Termination of pregnancy
In 2002, she terminated the second pregnancy without informing him, while in 2007 she vanished from home. After returning, she said she had gone to Vaishno Devi to seek divine blessings.
“The conduct of the respondent (wife), which has been pleaded by the appellant (husband), is consistent with the paranoid behaviour of the respondent. This explains her leaving house early and returning late evening. This explains her accusing her in-laws of stealing her medicines. It is apparently a case where the respondent hid the truth of her suffering from, if not more, at least depression. The appellant and his family were just not able to understand what was happening,” the Bench said.
“The unilateral termination of the second pregnancy adds to the mental torture inflicted upon the appellant,” said the Bench while adding, “The evidence establishes not only mental cruelty but even desertion and thus the appellant would be entitled to the marriage being annulled by grant of decree for divorce on grounds of cruelty as well as desertion.”
