The Delhi High Court ruled that continuous behaviour creating suspicion of infidelity, coupled with failure to clear such doubts, constitutes mental cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act. The court upheld a husband’s divorce plea, citing the wife’s evasive conduct and unexplained relationships.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has ruled that when one spouse repeatedly behaves in a way that creates serious doubts of infidelity in the other’s mind and does not try to clear those doubts, it amounts to mental cruelty and can be a valid reason for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA).
A division bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar, in a judgment delivered on October 29 and made public on Friday, said that emotional or physical infidelity damages the very foundation of marriage and causes deep mental pain to the other partner.
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The court observed that when a husband or wife invests
“emotional intimacy, secrecy, and sustained communication in another person outside the marriage while maintaining a façade of propriety,” it leads to “profound mental anguish, humiliation, and emotional abandonment.”
The bench made it clear that
“Infidelity need not always be proved through direct or ocular evidence.”
The judges added that
“Continuous conduct that perpetuates a situation wherein more than a mere reasonable apprehension of unfaithfulness or moral betrayal persists, coupled with the failure of the spouse who is alleged to have caused the genesis and continuity of such a condition of the mind, to effectively dissipate or dissuade through their testimony, the existence of such a state of affairs, constitutes mental cruelty within the meaning of Section 13(1)(ia) of the HMA (Hindu Marriage Act).”
The court further remarked,
“Infidelity, whether physical or emotional, corrodes the very foundation of marriage. It inflicts harm not upon the body but upon the psyche of the aggrieved spouse; a slow, silent, and devastating form of cruelty that destroys mutual trust and companionship.”
The bench gave this verdict while hearing a woman’s appeal challenging a family court’s November 2022 order that had granted divorce to her husband on the ground of cruelty.
The couple had married in October 1991 and had a daughter. However, after several years, the husband filed for divorce in 2012, alleging that his wife had developed extramarital relationships with two men, and that she was materialistic and money-minded.
The family court found that the woman’s continuous and unexplained communication with the two individuals, combined with her evasive answers and inconsistent statements, amounted to mental cruelty and granted the husband a divorce.
Challenging this order, the woman approached the High Court, claiming that her husband’s allegations were based only on phone bills and emails connected to a mobile number and computer registered in his own name, and that such evidence could not be treated as direct or reliable proof of adultery.
She said that her communication with the two men was strictly professional and business-related, not personal.
On the other hand, the husband opposed her plea, arguing that his wife’s deliberate and continuous extramarital affairs with two men, despite his repeated requests for her to stop, caused him severe mental agony and made it impossible for him to continue the marriage.
He added that during her testimony, his wife gave evasive answers, failed to clearly deny the allegations, and admitted to maintaining a prolonged relationship with the two individuals.
After hearing both sides, the High Court ruled in favour of the husband. The bench said the woman failed to produce any evidence to support her version and that her explanations were nothing more than a façade meant to hide the true nature of her relationships.
The court stated that her actions could not be considered
“a mere act of social cordiality or innocent indiscretion.”
By upholding the divorce, the Delhi High Court made it clear that continuous behaviour creating reasonable suspicion of infidelity, along with failure to clear those suspicions, amounts to mental cruelty, and such conduct can destroy trust—the core of a marital relationship.
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