Denial of conjugal relations amounts to mental cruelty: Delhi HC

New Delhi, Dec 9 The Delhi High Court has upheld a decree of divorce granted to a husband on the ground of mental cruelty, noting that the marriage had remained unconsummated from the very inception.

A Bench of Justices Anil Kshetrapal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar dismissed the appeal filed by the wife challenging the Family Court's December 15, 2023, judgment dissolving her marriage to her husband.

The Justice Kshetrapal-led Bench noted that the wife's conduct, including threats of false criminal cases, refusal to cohabit and abrupt abandonment of the matrimonial home, justified dissolution under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

Noting that the couple had lived together barely 40 days after their May 6, 2017, wedding, the Delhi High Court recorded that they had been continuously separated since June 26, 2017.

The husband alleged that the wife repeatedly avoided physical intimacy, refused conjugal relations, citing illness or depression, and threatened to implicate him in rape or abetment to suicide if he insisted on cohabitation.

In its order, the Justice Kshetrapal-led Bench said these allegations were supported by WhatsApp and email exchanges from the initial days of the marriage.

"The exhibited communications reflect reluctance, hesitation and unwillingness on the part of the appellant (wife) to engage in conjugal relations during the crucial initial period of marriage," the Delhi High Court observed, adding that her written statement itself used the expression "almost consummated", which "fortified the Family Court's conclusion".

Agreeing with the Family Court's finding that the denial of conjugal relations was wilful and persistent, it held that "such denial amounts to mental cruelty".

The Delhi High Court rejected the wife's claim that she and her family had made several attempts at reconciliation - in Dhanbad, Noida, and even at a mall in December 2017.

"For all the reasons recorded above, this Court finds that the Family Court's conclusion that the respondent (husband) had proved cruelty on a preponderance of probabilities is supported by the record and does not warrant appellate interference," said the Justice Kshetrapal-led Bench, affirming the decree of divorce.

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