The behaviour of the relatives of the wife cannot be considered to be an act of cruelty on the part of the wife,
On going through the pleading and the evidence in the case in the light of reasons given by the Trial Court in support of its conclusions, we do not find any justification in interfering with the refusal of the decree for divorce. Evidence of PW-2, the land lady, who apparently had no axe to grind, shows that there was no serious misunderstanding between the husband and the wife and there was nothing amiss in their relationship. According to her some problems were created by the relatives of the wife. The behaviour of the relatives of the wife cannot be considered to be an act of cruelty on the part of the wife, though no doubt, she could have resisted their attempts to disrupt the matrimonial home and continued to stay with her husband. The evidence of RW-4, who was the friend of elder brother (former husband of the lady) of the petitioner also indicates that there was no act on the part of the wife which could be found to constitute cruelty within the meaning of Section 13(1)(i-a) of the Act. The evidence of the other witnesses were discarded for proper reasons by the Trial Court and we do not find our way, to disagree with the appreciation of their evidence by the Trial Court.
Jharkhand High Court
Kamlesh Kumar Agarwal @ Sawa vs Mamta Devi on 29 March, 2004
Equivalent citations: AIR 2005 Jhar 10, 2004 (52) BLJR 1096
Bench: P Balasubramanyan, T Sen
