Repeated use of humiliating words amounts to cruelty: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court recently declared that every person has the right to live with dignity and honor. No person can be expected to live with constant abuse and repeated use of degrading words would amount to cruelty, the court observed.

Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Vikas Mahajan upheld a family court order granting a divorce decree on the plea of ​​a husband who alleged that his wife kept using derogatory and degrading words for him and his family whenever there was an argument. The wife challenged the family court decision in the High Court.

The High Court said that the conduct of the appellant-wife has been proved on record and is of such quality, scope and impact that it would regularly and continuously cause mental agony, pain, anger and suffering to the respondent-husband. so it clearly equates to cruelty. The husband specifically cited the taunts and language his wife and her father used against him and his family in a divorce petition filed in family court.

The husband claimed to be an asthmatic patient and when he asked his wife to give him medicine, she abused him by saying, “dikhayi nahi deta baat kar rahi hu, saans ki bimari hai lakwa nahi hai jo khud nahi le sakte dawai. (Can't you see I'm calling, you have asthma and not paralysis)”. She also told him that "main itna kharch nahi karti jitna teri dawao pe kharch hota hai (I am not spending as much as your medicines cost)," the husband alleged.

On other occasions, during any argument between them, the husband claimed that his wife told him, “Do kodi ka policewala hai tera baap, mera kuch nahi bigad sakta, ministry tak pahuch hai mere papa ki. (You have no position and cannot harm me in any way, my father has connections in the ministry)”. On one occasion, the husband claimed his father-in-law humiliated him by saying, "I'm a superintendent in the Department of Education, your family doesn't meet our standards."

The Supreme Court said, “If the words mentioned above are used against an individual, it would be highly defamatory and degrading to the individual. The respondent-husband claims that whenever there was an argument, the complainant-wife used these words and humiliated him and his family. The repeated use of the terms of nature, as excepted from the above, is clearly demeaning and would certainly amount to cruelty. No man can be expected to live with the constant abuse thrown at him."

The court rejected the plea and objections of the wife challenging the family court decision. The family court issued a decree of divorce stating that the husband had properly proved the charge of cruelty and ruled that his wife's behavior was not cordial towards her in-laws and that the husband and the husband were abusing their husband and his parents. in foul language. He further stated that the wife has not been able to prove any of the allegations of cruelty she is making. He held that the credibility of the husband's evidence could not be shaken during his cross-examination and, having regard to the totality of the facts, held that the case of cruelty had been made out and the marriage could be dissolved.