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The Karnataka High Court has rejected a man's plea against a family court's order, allowing his wife's petition for divorce, stating that he has caused humiliation and mental cruelty to her by making her a "scapegoat to his lifestyle and bad habits", including gambling.

A division bench of Justices G Narendar and Vijaykumar A Patil said the family court has recorded a categorical finding that the wife has proved that the husband had caused mental cruelty to her.

"The said finding of the Family Court is based on material on record and they are neither perverse nor contrary to the evidence on record calling for interference in these appeals," the bench said.

The family court has allowed the wife's petition filed under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 seeking dissolution of marriage on the ground of the cruelty. It has then dismissed the petition filed by the husband under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, seeking restitution of conjugal rights.

The wife who was a MSc graduate claimed her husband was addicted to all sorts of bad habits like gambling, betting, horse racing, consuming liquor and his earnings were not sufficient to meet his lifestyle and habits.

She claimed that he has obtained loan to the tune of Rs 15.00 to 20.00 Lakhs by misusing signed blank cheques and squandered the loan amount on his bad habits. She entered into an agreement to sell her property to her cousin in May 2012 and received advance of Rs 10.5 Lakhs, which was paid to the husband in order to avoid harassment. She alleged that strangers had started visiting the matrimonial home for demand of money and they threatened to approach the court of law and initiate criminal proceedings on the basis of the blank cheques signed by her.

In September 2012, the husband went away from the home and did not return, as he could not clear the loans received from the creditors. The wife claimed she has paid Rs 28.00 Lakhs to the husband to satisfy his bad habits but in spite of this, he has tortured her physically and mentally and exposed her to criminal proceedings.

The man, on the contrary, denied the charges of taking any money or forcing her to sign blank cheques. He claimed she had issues as he was just a diploma holder in computer science while she was MSc and belonged to an affluent family. He alleged she was rude, quarrelsome and unable to adjust with him. He claimed in October, 2012 she left the matrimonial home as he was unable to meet her expenses.

The High Court, however, said the family court after recording evidence found that the conduct of the husband established that he was in need of money for his personal habits, as alleged by the wife. It also noted that it has come on record that he used to operate her bank accounts and took loan on blank cheques signed by her, resulting into creditors visiting the matrimonial home and initiating proceedings for cheque dishonour.

"All this clearly goes to show that the appellant-husband has made the respondent-wife a scapegoat and made her to face criminal proceedings initiated by his creditors. These acts of the appellant-husband have caused humiliation and mental cruelty, which have been properly pleaded and proved by respondent-wife before the Family Court," the bench said, dismissing the petition by husband as without merit.

Case Title: Shri P. Ramananda Vs. Smt Saraswathi

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