False claims of illicit ties cause agony'

New Delhi: False allegations of illicit relations cause mental pain and agony to a husband and give rise to an apprehension that it would be dangerous to live with a wife who also threatens to commit suicide, the Delhi high court has said. The high court’s observation came while upholding a family court’s order allowing the estranged couple to divorce as the woman treated her husband with cruelty.

“We find that levelling of false allegations of illicit relations of such nature and magnitude causes mental pain, agony and suffering to the husband,” the court said.

“Such allegations cause profound and lasting disruptions in the relationships and also causes deep hurt and reasonable apprehension that it would be dangerous to live with a wife, especially when she is also threatening to commit suicide,” a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Deepa Sharma said.

On the woman’s claim that her husband was having illicit relations with his sister-in-law, the bench said such unsubstantial allegations certainly fall with the category of “grave and weighty cruelty”.

“These unsubstantiated allegations are of the nature to cause mental suffering to a person against whom such allegations are levelled,” it said.

“The woman has not only levelled such bald allegations against her husband, but also against her sister-in-law (wife of elder brother of the man) and thereby maligning her reputation as well. She has in fact indulged into an act of character assassination of her husband and his sister-in-law,” it said.

A family court here had in October last year allowed the man’s divorce petition on the ground of cruelty by his wife.