AHMEDABAD: Gujarat high court has served notice to a woman who obtained a divorce through a family court primarily citing cruelty because her husband’s sister had married outside their caste and this information was hidden from her. The couple’s arranged marriage took place in 2018, as stated by the husband’s representative.
The wife left her marital home two days after learning that her sister-in-law had married into another community which she considered lower in the societal caste hierarchy. In 2020, the woman filed for divorce in Bhavnagar family court, claiming cruelty. She said her husband had concealed information about his sister’s inter-caste marriage.
While he did mention having two sisters, he failed to disclose a third sister who had married outside their caste.She met this third sister only during the wedding. Additionally, she said her husband filed a police complaint alleging threats to his life from her family and mailed it to her workplace.
The husband filed a suit requesting restoration of conjugal rights, seeking court intervention to compel his wife to return.
On September 30, 2024 the Bhavnagar family court dismissed his petition while granting the wife’s divorce request. The husband contested this decision through two separate appeals and requested HC to quash the divorce order. After a preliminary hearing, Justices Biren Vaishnav and DM Desai stated that perusal of the judgment and decree under challenge would indicate that one of the primary grounds on which the application of the wife was entertained, claiming that the appellant husband had committed cruelty, is that one of the sisters of the appellant was married to someone from another community.
Following the notice issued to the woman, the high court has scheduled a joint hearing of both appeals on January 20.