The Delhi High Court has said filing of criminal cases by the wife would not constitute "mental cruelty" and declined to grant divorce to a man on the ground that his wife filed such cases to harass him and his family members following a matrimonial dispute. Justice Kailash Gambhir allowed an appeal filed by a woman challenging the trial court's order granting divorce on her husband's plea that he and his family members were facing criminal cases lodged by his wife,which constituted harassment and cruelty. Setting aside the trial court's findings,Justice Gambhir said "this court does not find any merit in the reasoning given by the learned trial court that since there were more criminal cases filed by the appellant(wife),therefore,filing of such criminal cases would constitute cruelty to the respondent(husband)". "As per the settled position of law ,looking into the background of the aforementioned criminal cases filed by the wife,it is difficult to accept the argument of the counsel for the husband that the same were filed by the wife just with a view to harassing her husband and the same were without any basis",the court said while referring to the Supreme Court judgements.
