Bombay High Court: Routine disagreements not mental cruelty, refuses man's divorce plea

The Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench, comprising Justices Urmila Joshi Phalke and Raj Wakode, refused to grant a divorce to a man who argued that his wife quarrelled with him and his mother. In an order passed on Wednesday, the court said that with changing dynamics in a marriage, mere annoyance and normal disagreements do not constitute mental cruelty or grounds for divorce.

The court observed that cruelty should be of a nature that it is not reasonably expected for the couple to live together. It also said that cruelty in a marriage cannot be determined by a few isolated incidents; the entire married life should be assessed as a whole. The court noted, "There have been marked changes in the life around us and also in matrimonial duties and responsibilities," adding that cruelty in one case may not be the same in another.