A single bench of Justice Nitin Sambre and Justice Sharmila Deshmukh of Bombay High Court while granting divorce to a husband on the ground of cruelty, observed that common utterances in Marathi like “तुला अक्कल नाही, तू वेडी आहेस” cannot be considered as an abusive or filthy language unless it is shown that the same was done with the intention to humiliate or insult.

Further, the court said, filing a case against husband without providing any such evidence that he had abused her using such words, would amount to cruelty.   

“The parties are Maharashtrians and irrespective of any strata of society to which the parties belong, these are common utterances in Marathi language and cannot be considered as abuse in a filthy language unless the context in which the utterances were made demonstrates that the same was for the purpose of humiliating and insulting the person”.

The appeal was filed by the husband against the family’s court order for rejecting his divorce application.

Wife alleged that her husband physically and mentally abused her, she further alleged that he said that “तुला अक्कल नाही, तू वेडी आहेस” which amounted to abuse in filthy language.

On the other hand, husband alleged that the conduct of the wife amounts to cruelty and the allegations made by her against him is unsubstantiated. Further, husband alleged that his wife lowered his and his family’s reputation in society by filing such baseless cases which amounted to cruelty.

It is noted by the bench that the wife had not submitted any supporting details that such utterances were made and further held that simply mouthing the said words cannot be termed as she was abused by husband in filthy language.  

It is noted by the hon’ble bench that the wife filed the FIR after the examination of evidence was initiated in the divorce case.

The court said “The irresponsible and false baseless allegations made by the wife and failing to justify the same by evidence by itself would amount to cruelty and would entitle the husband to the dissolution of the marriage”

While allowing the divorce application of the husband, court held that “The allegations of illicit relationship and the lodging of FIR making reckless and false allegations have subjected the husband to serious traumatic experience which can safely be termed as ‘cruelty’ coming within the purview of Section 13(1)(i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act. Therefore, we hold that he is entitled to the decree for dissolution of marriage under Section 13(1)(i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act”.