21 years of marriage, 22 years of legal battle to get divorce!

21 years of marriage, 22 years of legal battle to get divorce!

Saeed.Khan@timesofindia.com 16.01.2025

Ahmedabad : The Gujarat high court has granted divorce to a man ending his 43-year matrimonial relationship in which he spent a little more than half the time fighting a legal battle for separation from his estranged wife. After hearing the case of the man in his sixties about his discordant relationship with his wife, who has been living separately for over 25 years, the bench of Justice Biren Vaishnav and Justice D M Desai stated in the order, “When the parties have crossed their major portion of life in prosecuting litigations, we feel sorry about the bitter relationship between the parties. Even the son who is born out of wedlock is almost 40 and as per the submissions of the learned advocates for the parties, the son also has his family. 

We are unequivocally of the view that nothing really subsists in the marriage except mutual acrimony.” The case involved a couple from Ahmedabad, who got married in 1982. Their marital life was smooth for a year or so but later disputes began with the husband complaining that the wife asked for too much money from him. 

In 2008, family court rejected divorce petition Upon refusal, she would harass him mentally, the husband complained. The court order revealed that there were settlements between the husband and the wife in 1986 and 1987 with regard to her complaints against her husband including a criminal case filed under Section 498A of IPC. The disputes, however, never got resolved and the wife finally left her matrimonial home in 1998. The husband initiated the proceedings for restitution of conjugal rights and finally instituted a divorce suit in 2003 on the grounds of cruelty and desertion. In 2008, the family court rejected the divorce petition. The husband appealed in the high court contending that the family court did not properly appreciate the evidence. He also claimed that he was beaten by his wife and her family members near the gate of the family court in 2000, for which he filed a criminal case. His counsel reiterated that the man and his wife had been living separately for more than two decades, and there was no scope for reconciliation.