The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently observed that not granting a decree of divorce would be disastrous if marriage between the couple had broken down irretrievably and there was no chance of their coming or living together again. The ruling by the bench of Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Archana Puri came in a case where the respondent-wife was not staying with the appellant-husband for the last 18 years and was not ready to give mutual divorce to him. The bench also made it clear that living together was not a compulsory exercise and marriage was a “tie between two parties”.
The matter was brought to the High Court’s notice after the husband filed an appeal against a family court’s order dismissing his petition under the Hindu Marriage Act 1955, for dissolution of marriage between the parties by a decree of divorce on the grounds of cruelty and desertion. It was argued that the respondent (wife) was not staying with the (appellant) husband since 2003 and was allegedly not willing to settle the dispute amicably. The man who wanted a divorce was ready to pay one-time alimony so that he could move ahead in life, but the wife was not accepting that.
Applying the ratio of the SC judgments, the bench allowed the appeal and ordered the setting aside of the family court’s judgment, while granting decree of divorce to the parties. “However, we direct the appellant-husband to make an FD of Rs 10 lakh in the name of the respondent-wife,” the bench concluded.