MRS RAJ BHARTI Vs. ASHOK KUMAR BEGWANI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a matrimonial dispute arising out of a petition filed by the respondent, Ashok Kumar Begwani, under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 for a decree, of divorce against the appellant, Mrs. Raj Bharti, on the ground of cruelty.

(2.) A broad brush factual backdrop will help delineate the points evolved in this matrimonial dispute.

(3.) LEGAL cruelty may be defined as "conduct of such a character as to have caused danger to life, limb or health or as to give rise to a reasonable apprehension of such danger". Therefore, an inquiry has to be Conducted whe-ther the conduct charged as cruelty is of such a character as to cause in the mind of the petitioner a reasonable apprehension that it would be harmful or injurious for him to live with the non-petitioner. In" a case where the wife was arrogant temperamentally and showed total disrespect towards her husband and towards members of his family causing untold agony to the husband, then such sort of conduct of the wife is covered by the definition of 'cruelty'. In a case of judical separation, if the evidence adduced showed that the defendant had adopted a persistent silence towards the applicant and he had persistently and deliberately ignored her existence, making life intolerable, the applicant namely the husband was entitled to a decree of judicial separation.