‘Refusal to have sex during honeymoon not cruelty’

Refusal to have sex with a life partner during honeymoon does not amount to cruelty, the Bombay high court has ruled while setting aside a family court judgement dissolving the marriage of a couple on this ground. 

‘The married life should be assessed as a whole and a few isolated instances over certain period will not amount to cruelty’, observed justices V K Tahilramani and P N Deshmukh in an order early this week. Mere trivial irritations, quarrels, normal wear and tear of married life which happens in day to day life in all families would not be adequate for grant of divorce on the ground of cruelty, the judges further said. ‘Only sustained unjustified and reprehensible conduct affecting physical and mental health of the other spouse may lead to mental cruelty. 

There is no evidence to that effect in the present case’, the bench noted. The court was hearing an appeal filed by a 29-year-old wife who was aggrieved by a family court order of December 2012, passing a divorce decree on a plea made by her husband on the grounds of cruelty.