New Delhi: The Jharkhand High Court recently rejected a man’s appeal to divorce his wife on the grounds of cruelty and desertion by the wife, stating that living in different states for work or having compatibility issues does not amount to “cruelty under the law”.

A bench Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Sanjay Prasad, was hearing the appeal filed by the husband against the family court’s March 2023 order, which granted restitution of conjugal rights to the wife.

Why husband wants divorce?

The couple got married in 2011 and initially lived in Ranchi and later shifted to Dumka. In 2015, the wife got a government job in Jharkhand and she started financially supporting her family, which her husband reportedly did not like, and this led to frequent disputes between the couple.

In 2016, the man, posted in Odisha, asked his wife to quit her job and move in with him, but she refused. Later, the husband filed for restitution of conjugal rights, and a family court in 2018 directed the wife to live with him.

However, she moved the High Court against the order. The wife claimed she tried to give their marriage another chance, but in July 2019, her husband did not allow her to enter his house. While the wife wants to continue the marriage, the husband has filed for divorce, citing cruelty and desertion.

What HC said?

Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Sanjay Prasad, dismissing the husband’s appeal, underlined that not every disagreement or difficulty in a marriage is “cruelty.

“Simple trivialities which can truly be described as a reasonable wear and tear of married life cannot amount to cruelty. In many marriages, each party can, if it so wishes, discover many causes for complaint, but such grievances arise mostly from temperamental disharmony. Such disharmony or incompatibility is not cruelty and will not furnish a cause for the dissolution of marriage,” the April 10 order read.

The order further stated that the cruelty must be more serious than the ordinary wear and tear of married life. The bench said that the husband, who has a central government job in Odisha, can easily seek transfer and relocation.