Karnataka HC Grants Divorce Due To Wife’s Cruel Derogation Of Husband’s Skin Tone

The Karnataka High Court has recently stated that insulting a man for being dark-skinned by his wife constitutes cruelty as it underlined this as a strong reason for allowing his appeal and granted him divorce.

This stance was articulated by the High Court in a recent adjudication, wherein it sanctioned the dissolution of the marital union between a 44-year-old man and his 41-year-old wife.

The Court noted that the wife had frequently belittled the husband on the grounds of his dark skin tone.

The HC stated while allowing the petition for dissolution of the marriage under Section 13(i)(a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, “To cover up this aspect, (she) has levelled false allegations of illicit relationships against the husband. These facts certainly will constitute cruelty.”

The couple, hailing from Bengaluru, contracted matrimony in 2007 and became parents to a daughter. Subsequently, in 2012, the husband petitioned a family court in Bengaluru, seeking for a divorce.

The division bench of Justices Alok Aradhe and Anant Ramanath Hegde, adjudicating upon the husband’s appeal, opined, “It is the case of the husband that the wife used to humiliate him on the pretext that he is dark-skinned. He has further stated that the husband used to bear insult for the sake of the child.”

In response to these circumstances, the wife invoked Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, which pertains to subjecting a married woman to cruelty, against her husband and in-laws. She also invoked provisions of the Domestic Violence Act and relocated with her child to her parental abode.

She denied the allegations in the family court and in turn alleged that it was the husband and his family members who were ill-treating her and subjecting her to cruelty.
Furthermore, she accused her husband of engaging in an illicit relationship and fathering a child outside their marriage.

The family court dismissed the husband’s petition for divorce in 2017 after which he approached the HC, and pronounced the verdict.

The High Court, in its recent pronouncement, refuted the claim of an illicit relationship and termed it baseless, thereby dismissing it as groundless.

“This allegation made in paragraph No.10 of the statement of objections is serious. If such an allegation is made in the pleading, it can be certainly concluded that the person against whom such allegation is made will be subject to enormous mental cruelty. This fact has not been appreciated by the Family Court at all.”

The HC also said that calling him dark amounted to cruelty.

The HC said setting aside the family court order, “It is further stated that the wife has not made any attempt to join the company of the husband to come back and the evidence on record would establish that she was not interested in the marriage because of the dark complexion of the husband. By referring to these contentions, it is urged that the Family Court ought to have granted a decree for the dissolution of marriage.”