Raipur: The Chhattisgarh High Court has held that abusive and derogatory messages sent by a husband to his wife and her family members can amount to mental cruelty, and granted the woman a divorce on those grounds.
The Division Bench of Justice Parth Prateem Sahu and Justice Sushma Sawant overturned a previous Family Court decision, which dismissed the woman’s divorce petition for insufficient evidence. The High Court dissolved the marriage under Section 13(1)(i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, which provides for divorce based on cruelty.
The decision came in an appeal filed by Archana Singh, 32, against her husband Anand Kumar Gupta, 35. Singh is from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh and lives in Ambikapur presently, while Gupta lives in Aara in Bihar.
Woman Alleged Physical And Verbal Abuse After Marriage
The couple was married on December 5, 2021, according to Hindu rituals, the woman said. She said that within about a month of their marriage, her husband started physically and verbally abusing her.
She also claimed that he wanted an air conditioner as dowry and threatened to sell her jewellery. After what she described as continued harassment, she left the matrimonial home and returned to her parental home in Ambikapur.
But the woman said attempts at reconciliation did not resolve the dispute. Her younger sisters intervened later on after allegedly witnessing or knowing about the assaults. The husband then sent abusive text messages to her and her sisters, she said.
The messages became an important element of evidence considered by the High Court. The husband did not appear before either the Family Court or the High Court to contest the allegations and was proceeded against ex parte.
The Family Court in Ambikapur, Surguja, had dismissed the woman’s divorce petition in April 2024, ruling that sufficient evidence of cruelty had not been established. She challenged that decision in the High Court.
High Court Examines WhatsApp Messages.
One of the key issues before the High Court was the treatment of WhatsApp messages submitted by the woman.
The trial court had rejected the screenshots on procedural grounds, including questions about identifying the sender and the completeness of the material. The High Court took a different view in light of the special evidentiary framework applicable to family disputes.
The Bench referred to Section 14 of the Family Courts Act 1984. The provision allows Family Courts greater discretion to receive material that may assist in deciding the case, even if the material may not necessarily comply with the strict rules of evidence for regular civil cases.
The court said that the husband had the opportunity to challenge the messages (including the identity of the mobile number or the authorship) but did not appear to challenge the material.
The High Court also considered the woman’s testimony and supporting evidence. In the judgment analysis, her evidence was unchallenged because the husband did not appear or cross-examine her witnesses. So the court considered the evidence in the context of the whole matrimonial dispute.
The court held that the messages reflected conduct that was disrespectful towards the wife's sisters as well. Such behaviour, when taken into account in the context of the case, was found to be a cause of severe mental anguish to the wife and amounted to serious mental cruelty.
Marriage Dissolved and Woman Given Liberty To Seek Alimony
The High Court went further and agreed to the woman's appeal and to set aside the Family Court's earlier judgment and decree.
The marriage, which was solemnised on December 5, 2021, was dissolved by a decree of divorce under Section 13(1)(i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act based on cruelty.
The Bench also granted the woman the right to pursue permanent alimony separately under Section 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act. She had not sought permanent alimony as part of the appeal before the court.
The judgment also laid out the importance of evidence in matrimonial disputes. The court did not treat the abusive messages in isolation. It drew its conclusion from the evidence before it, supporting evidence and her and her sisters’ messages to her, and also from physical and verbal abuse and dowry-related harassment.
The ruling thus concerns the very nature of this particular matrimonial dispute. It does not mean that every abusive message sent to relatives of a spouse will result in a divorce. The courts judge allegations of cruelty on the basis of what we know and what we have seen.
The decision also highlights the wider evidentiary flexibility Family Courts have under Section 14 of the Family Courts Act, particularly when assessing material relevant to matrimonial disputes.
