In a significant ruling, the Chhattisgarh High Court has recently underscored that a husband's excessive alcohol consumption, coupled with neglect of his responsibilities, amounts to mental cruelty inflicted upon his wife and family, including their children. The insightful verdict was delivered in the case of Payal Sharma vs Umesh Sharma, where Justices Goutam Bhaduri and Sanjay Agrawal granted the wife's plea for marriage dissolution on grounds of cruelty.
The bench astutely acknowledged that the husband's failure to fulfill even essential obligations, such as paying the school fees for their two children, despite his wife being unemployed, bears adverse consequences for the family's well-being. The court observed that the wife's dependence on the husband for household necessities and their children's upbringing is a natural expectation. However, when a husband's behavior deviates towards excessive drinking instead of meeting these responsibilities, the resulting deterioration of the family's conditions becomes a source of mental distress for the wife and the entire household, children included, the bench held.
A significant portion of the alleged acts of cruelty raised by the wife stemmed from her husband's reported excessive drinking habits, the court noted. According to the submissions, the husband, while under the influence of alcohol, verbally and physically abused his wife. The situation allegedly escalated to the point where he resorted to selling household belongings to sustain his drinking habits.
Moreover, the bench highlighted that despite having two children, the husband had neglected his duty to pay their school fees. When the wife requested funds for educational expenses and other household necessities, he purportedly subjected her to further abuse and assault. The court observed that since the husband did not challenge these allegations during the family court proceedings, they were deemed accepted by the High Court.
In light of this, the High Court concluded that the husband's conduct indeed amounted to mental cruelty inflicted upon his wife. The judges noted the wife's efforts to salvage the marriage, emphasizing her previous withdrawal of a divorce application on the husband's promise to rectify his behavior.
With these profound insights, the court dissolved the marriage contracted on February 2, 2006, and mandated the husband to provide ₹15,000 per month as maintenance to the wife. Advocate Barun Kumar Chakrabarty effectively represented the wife's interests in court, while the husband remained unrepresented in the proceedings. This judgment sheds light on the evolving understanding of mental cruelty within marital relationships and its implications for Indian family law.
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TAGS: Chhattisgarh High Court excessive drinking mental cruelty husband wife family children marriage dissolution responsibilities school fees household necessities alcohol consumption abuse assault family conditions well-being family law Indian judiciary divorce maintenance Advocate Barun Kumar Chakrabarty.
