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A spouse setting self on fire, behaving abnormally would amount to cruelty, ruled the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court. The HC said such a behaviour by a spouse would not only annoy the other partner but would make a huge mental impact on their lives.

A bench of Justice Mukund Sewlikar upheld the order of a Family Court which granted divorce to a man on the grounds of cruelty.

The bench was seized with a plea filed by the man seeking divorce on the ground that his wife was abnormal. He said that his wife used to pick up quarrel with him and even used to abuse.

Highlighting a few instances, the husband claimed that once his wife had come to his school, where he worked and had created a huge ruckus. She had started begging in the office then she tore her own clothes and even threw his files in the office. He even said that once she had set herself ablaze.

"No person possessing a sound state of mind would act in such an abnormal manner. This behaviour itself is indicative of that the wife is suffering from some mental disorder, may not be of incurable form," the judge said.

"The behaviour of the wife in throwing the files, begging, taking rounds around the temple, frightening the students would show that she was suffering from some mental disorder. These acts amounted to cruelty. The husband, despite all this, had taken the wife for cohabitation," Justice Sewlikar held.

The judge, accordingly, upheld the Family Court's orders granting divorce.

[This story first appeared on the Free Press Journal]