Wife’s denial to indulge in sexual act is a cruelty and a solid ground for divorce

Wife’s denial to having sex with husband without any specific reason has been considered as cruelty as well as a solid ground for divorce as per the ruling of Karnataka High Court. The court observed while rejecting a woman’s appeal seeking to set aside a decree of divorce granted by the family court: “The husband can’t be made to suffer for no fault of his and be deprived of his natural urge to enjoy sexual happiness if the wife is unwilling to share the bed and discharge her duties.”

The wife had approached the honourable High Court while challenging the previously given order by the family court in the year 2009. The Mysore-based couple got married in 2006, but the wife never indulged in the sexual activities with her husband. Despite being rigorously counselled by doctors at Nimhans as well as by a reputed private hospital in the city, she did not show any improvement.

A division bench comprising Justices K L Manjunath and K Govindarajulu said: “When the marriage is not consummated for more than six years, no court can direct the husband to join his wife and live without conjugal happiness for the rest of his life. Even if the wife had any medical problem, she was required to provide evidence to the court and prove she was ready to discharge her duties as a wife. But she has made no such efforts. Therefore, for no fault of the husband, he can’t be made to suffer depriving of his natural urge to enjoy the sexual happiness.” The court upheld the divorce granted by a family court in Mysore.

The 20-page judgment noted that the wife was not illiterate and was, in fact, a postgraduate. She could have produced the medical records if she had any problems, it said. The concerned husband moved to the family court in the year 2009, three years after the marriage, looking for divorce under Section 19 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. The main ground as presented before the court was wife’s denial to share the bed with the husband. The divorce was granted in the year 2010.

He told the court that he attempted his best to repair the relationship by taking his wife to a specialist and a Gynecologist in a private healing centre in Mysore and also in Nimhans. The wife, with all due respect, contended that she had never declined to impart couch to her spouse and their marriage had been consummated. Throughout interrogation in the family court, she had concurred that the marriage was not consummated.

“The husband can’t be made to suffer for no fault of his and be deprived of his natural urge to enjoy sexual happiness if the wife is unwilling to share the bed and discharge her duties.”

-Karnataka High Court

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