Chhattisgarh High Court Upholds Grant Of Divorce Over Concealment Of Wife’s Inability To Conceive; Asks Husband To Pay ₹5L As Permanent Alimony

The High Court was considering an appeal challenging the judgment of the Family Court, granting a decree of civil suit filed by the respondent/applicant under Section 13(1)(a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

The Division Bench of Justice Rajani Dubey and Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad stated, “The appellant/wife (DW/01) admitted this suggestion that her treatment was going on and she has stated that after taking medications, she has become capable of having a child and she admitted this suggestion that she has not produced any Doctor Certificate in this regard. Both the parties have stated that since 2016 they are living separately.”

"Learned Family Court has minutely appreciated the oral and documentary evidence and finds that issues No. 1 and 3 are in favour of the respondent/husband and rightly passed the decree of divorce in favour of him", it added.

Advocate Chandrakaditya Pandey represented the Appellant.

Factual Background

The marriage between the appellant and respondent was solemnised in the year 2015 according to Hindu rituals. The respondent/applicant preferred an application under Section 13(1) (a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, against the appellant/non-applicant seeking a decree of dissolution of marriage on the ground of getting disclosure of the fact that the appellant was not getting her menstrual discharge. As per the application filed by the respondent/applicant, the financial condition of the appellant’s father was not good at the time of marriage, and the respondent is the one who bore the entire expenses of the marriage. Despite several efforts by the respondent to make his wife/appellant understand the responsibilities he had undertaken for his family, she did not change her behaviour and allegedly continued her disrespectful behaviour towards the respondent’s husband.

The doctor informed that she had not had her menstrual cycle for 10 years and thus she was having trouble having children. It was alleged that the appellant was well aware of the fact before her marriage with the respondent/applicant that she was unable to conceive, yet she concealed this fact and married the respondent/applicant. The trial Court, after getting the application under Section 13 (1) (a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, granted the decree of divorce in favour of the respondent/husband. Hence, the appeal came to be filed by the appellant/wife before the High Court.

Reasoning

The Bench noted that the appellant/wife admitted the suggestion that her treatment was going on, and she had stated that after taking medications, she had become capable of having a child. She had also admitted the suggestion that she had not produced any Doctor Certificate in this regard. Both parties stated that since 2016 they had been living separately.

As per the Bench, the Family Court minutely appreciated the oral and documentary evidence and rightly passed the decree of divorce in favour of him. "Thus, we do not find any illegality or irregularity warranting interference by this Court in the impugned judgment passed by the Family Court.", the Court said.

The Bench further found that awarding an amount of Rs 5 lakh as a one-time settlement in favour of the appellant-wife would serve the purpose of equity and meet the ends of justice. “This amount shall cover all the pending and future claims of the appellant against the respondent/husband. The respondent/husband is, therefore, directed to pay the said amount as permanent alimony to the appellant/wife within a period of four months from today”, it ordered.

Cause Title: A v. B (Neutral Citation: 2025:CGHC:59613-DB)

Appearance

Appellant: Advocates Chandrakaditya Pandey, Dharmesh Shrivastava

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