Pregnancy termination without consent of hubby amounts to cruelty: Madhya Pradesh HC
Bhopal: In a significant judgement, the Madhya Pradesh high court has held that termination of pregnancy by the wife without her husband’s consent amounts to cruelty and constitutes a ground for divorce.
A division bench of the court comprising Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Vinod Kumar Dwivedy has observed that the cruelty encompasses both physical and mental and ruled that the termination of pregnancy without husband’s consent falls within this definition (of cruelty).
The court however has observed that there cannot be a one-size-fit- all approach in such cases.
“Termination of pregnancy may come under the term ‘cruelty’ depending on the facts and circumstances of the case”, the court has ruled.
The court further observed that ‘The question of mental cruelty has to be considered in the light of the norms of marital ties of the particular society to which the parties belong, their social values, status, environment in which they live. Cruelty as noted above includes mental cruelty, which falls within the purview of a matrimonial wrong’.
The court further elaborated that ‘Cruelty need not be physical. If from the conduct of the spouse, the same is established and/ or an inference can be legitimately drawn that the treatment of the spouse is such that it causes an apprehension in the mind of the other spouse, about his or her mental welfare, then this conduct amounts to cruelty’.
In a delicate human relationship like matrimony, one has to see the probabilities of the case, the court observed.
While seeking dissolution of marriage in a family court earlier, the husband had alleged that his wife had frequently threatened to implicate him and his family in a dowry case and terminated her pregnancy without his consent.
The wife had filed an FIR against her husband and his family in November 2017 accusing them of harassment for dowry.
The husband and his family however were later acquitted in the case by the trial court.
The family court had granted divorce in September, 2023 on ground of cruelty and desertion by wife.
The wife had however moved the high court challenging the family court’s verdict.
The high court has upheld the family court’s verdict in the case.