Wife calling husband dark-skinned is cruelty: Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court has said that shaming a husband for being dark-skinned amounted to cruelty and underlined it as a strong reason for granting a divorce.

The court observed this in a recent judgment while granting divorce to a 44-year-old man from his 41-year-old wife, reported news agency PTI.

The evidence on record, from close scrutiny, also leads to the conclusion that the wife used to insult the husband on the premise that he was dark and, for the same reason, had moved away from the company of the husband without any cause, the court noted.

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

The couple tied the knot in 2007 and later were blessed with a girl. In 2012, the husband approached a family court in Bengaluru, seeking a divorce.

His appeal was heard by the division bench of Justices Alok Aradhe and Anant Ramanath Hegde, which gave the judgment.

"It is the case of the husband where 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," the court noted.

She had also filed a case under Section 498A (subjecting a married woman to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code against her husband and in-laws. The woman also filed a case under the Domestic Violence Act and left with the child to live with her parents.

In the family court, she refuted the accusations and counterclaimed that her husband and his relatives were mistreating her and subjecting her to cruelty. She asserted that they were demanding a dowry from her and restricting her from going out with her child.

Additionally, she contended that her husband was involved in an extramarital affair, resulting in a child with another woman.

Following the family court's rejection of the husband's divorce plea in 2017, he pursued the matter in the high court.

The high court ruled that the allegations made against the husband regarding his alleged illicit relationship with another woman were entirely unsubstantiated, lacking any basis. The court further deemed these allegations to be not only unfounded but also without proper consideration and recklessly made.

"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," the court observed while setting aside the family court order.

"By referring to these contentions, it is urged that the family court ought to have granted a decree for the dissolution of marriage," it noted.