Bombay High Court: Rejecting a man’s plea for divorce, a bench comprising of Abhay S. Oka and MS Sonak, JJ held that the appellant husband had failed to prove the alleged serious allegations of cruelty. In the present case the couple had met through a marriage bureau and got married in 2000. The husband had approached this Court after the Family Court rejected his petition, seeking divorce on the grounds of cruelty in 2004. The High Court first suggested to the couple to settle the matter amicably and gave them three months but they were unable to reach any consent terms. The Counsel for the appellant husband alleged that after marriage his wife started putting on weight after marriage and although the husband had tried to persuade her to take medical treatment, she declined to cooperate, thus depriving him pleasures of matrimonial life. He also alleged that his wife had kept him in the dark about a breast surgery which she had undergone prior to marriage. The advocate for the respondent-wife argued that there was no column for disclosing information regarding the surgery in the form provided by the marriage bureau and that wife’s family had informed the groom’s family about the issue. The Court arrived at the decision taking into account the husband’s testimony before the Family Court where he had disclosed that the marriage was consummated and where he had also admitted that the his wife had taken initiative for maintaining physical relations thereby throwing away the allegations of cruelty. Milind Anant Palse v. Yojana Milind Palse, Family Court Appeal No.106 of 2005, decided on June 10, 2014
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