Marriage held as per Hindu rituals cannot be terminated like a contract : Allahabad High Court

Prayagraj (UP) – Allahabad High Court recently made this important observation. The Court held that a Hindu marriage cannot be terminated or dissolved like a contract. Divorce in Hindu marriages is only allowed under specific grounds, not by treating it as a breakable contract. If a husband or wife is accused of infertility or inability to have a child, then that allegation can be proved only on the basis of evidence.

1. In this case, the husband of the couple, who married in 2006, is (serving) in the Indian Army. He had applied for divorce in the year 2008. The husband claimed that his wife could not bear a child. He sought divorce on that ground.

2. The wife had consented to divorce in her first written statement. However, in the year 2010, the wife filed a second written statement opposing the divorce and submitted documents refuting her husband’s allegations about infertility. She also revealed that before the divorce was applied for  in the year 2008, she had already given birth to a boy and gave birth to another in 2010.

3. The family court accepted the husband’s objection and ignored the wife’s second written statement. On the same day, the court heard the matter and allowed the husband’s divorce application, which was challenged by the wife in the high court.