Observations were made by Allahabad High Court’s two-judge Bench of Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Krishan Pahal.
BRIEF FACTS OF THE CASE:
In the case of Smt. Mohit Preet Kapoor v. Sumit Kapoor, the appellant wife has filed an appeal against the judgment passed by the family court under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act. The husband of appellant had filed a divorce petition on grounds that his wife had deserted him by leaving her matrimonial house for more than 2 years without reasonable cause, intending to bring cohabitation to an end with him, did not engage in household chores and misbehaves with family members of respondent. Another ground for the said petition was that she visits her parents’ house without taking permission from her husband, which according to the respondent are grounds amounting to cruelty. The wife refuted all the allegations by stating that she did not desert her husband for 2 years and more and was thrown out of her matrimonial home along with her daughter by her husband and had also filed an FIR against him. The family court ruled in favour of the respondent stating that the wife had deserted her husband without any reasonable cause. Aggrieved by the said judgment the appellant filed an appeal before the court for setting aside the same.
Issues framed by Family Court:
Whether wife committed any cruelty towards her husband?
Whether wife deserted her husband for more than 2 years?
Observations of family court:
Family court while adjudicating the divorce petition filed by the husband observed about the first issue that since wife use to visit her parents’ house without the permission of her husband and not contributing towards the household chores being a daughter-in-law, ending cohabitation with him, wilfully filing wrongful criminal case against him, amounts to cruelty towards her husband.
The trial court on the second issue observed that the wife had deserted her husband without any reasonable justification and all the grounds presented by the husband stand true, therefore granted divorce.
High Court’s observations:
The court while adjudicating the appeal filed by the wife observed that the witnesses presented by the husband to prove his grounds to be true gave contradictory statements during cross examination and found to be giving assertions with the information provided to them by the husband itself, therefore cannot be relied upon. On the other hand, the court found submissions of appellant to be more credible and convincing.
Court further contended that findings of family court were wrong as they misread the statements of witnesses and wrongfully acted while passing the divorce decree.
The court referred to the case of Savitri Pandey v. Prem Chandra Pandey and opined that,
“holding desertion as proved the inference may be drawn from certain facts viewing them as to the purpose which is revealed by those acts or by conduct and expression of intention, both anterior and subsequent to the actual acts of desertion. Desertion may also be constructive which can be inferred from attending circumstances. It has also always to be kept in mind that the question of desertion is a matter of inference to be drawn from the facts and circumstances of each case.”
The High Court negated family court’s finding of filling of criminal case against the husband amounts to cruelty as the same was filed much after the divorce petition and any subsequent conduct of filing complaint against the husband after being thrown out of her matrimonial home does not amount to cruelty towards her husband. It stated that all the findings of family court are against the evidence on record and deserve to be set aside.
The court allowed the above appeal directing to set aside the judgment of family court and maintenance of 30,000pm/- to be paid to the wife by the respondent along with the arrears accordingly.
CASE TITLE: Smt. Mohit Preet Kapoor v. Sumit Kapoor
CASE DETAILS: FIRST APPEAL No. 351 of 2020
CORUM: Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Krishan Pahal
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