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Synopsis

The Gujarat High Court recently upheld a Family Court’s decision to allow divorce on the ground of cruelty in a case where a teacher had forced a student who was 12 years younger than him to marry him.

The division bench of Justice NV Anjaria and Justice Sandeep N Bhatt observed that: “Cruelty is not a defined concept. Whether cruelty is acted upon or not varies from case to case facts and circumstances”.

"A student was forced to marry a teacher, even though they were very different in age and prospects, and the way the plaintiff wife was treated after the marriage shows that she was treated cruelly," the court said.

The order was passed in an appeal filed by the husband (appellant) against the divorce decree passed by the Family Court, Amreli on 20th November 2019.

Back on August 4, 2018, the marriage was registered in the Amreli village of Chakkargadh. As per the wife's case, she was in her third year of college, and the appellant was a teacher in the same college. He taught her classes, and he would tell her that she needed to secure double "A" in his class, and if she didn't, she would have to do what he wanted. The husband was already married and had two kids. He used to blackmail her with the promise that his kids would get a mother's love. He also continued making suicide threats to respondent (wife), and for once he attempted suicide as well, so she had no choice but to marry him out of fear, pressure, and coercion. She said that he had also obtained her signature on the application to get married.

The wife got pregnant three times, but she had to go for abortions against her will. She asked for a divorce on the grounds that her husband was cruel and deserted her. The divorce order was made by the Family Court. The husband then challenged the judgment of the Family court before the high court.

The high court observed that the husband's first wife was still living, even though he had claimed to have obtained a divorce from her. He agreed to get married to the respondent, who was one of his students and hence their marriage could not be treated as null and void according to Hindu Marriage Act.

The court also made clear, "The case was specific because the respondent (the wife) had a prescription and a sonogram of the pregnancy to back up her claim that she was pregnant and that she was forced to have an abortion as many as three times and at one point the wife was driven away and deserted as she did not succumb to demand."

Therefore, opining that the wife's case of cruelty and desertion had been proved against the husband, the bench upheld the decision of the Family Court, Amreli, and dismissed the appeal.

Case Title – Dharmendra Babubhai Prajapati vs. Khushaliben

Statutes – The Hindu Marriage Act 1955 & The Civil Procedure Code 1908