New Delhi- The Delhi High Court has held that questioning a husband's legitimacy and making reprehensive allegations against his mother amount to mental cruelty, a ground for divorce.

The high court, while upholding the divorce decree granted by a family court, said the woman's proven acts of cruelty, including the use of abusive language, physical violence and social isolation, stand on their own footing and are severe enough to warrant the dissolution of the marriage.

“Words and communications of the sort proved in this case are not innocuous. The law recognises that mental cruelty may be visited by persistent and deliberate verbal abuse and conduct that degrades a spouse and injures reputation and self-respect,” a bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar said in a judgment passed on October 17.

The high court passed the order on an appeal filed by the woman claiming that the family court failed to consider the acts of cruelty meted out to her and wrongly granted divorce to husband.

The woman, a Group A officer of the Indian Railway Traffic Service, and the man, who is an advocate by profession, got married in January 2010 and parted ways in March 2011. It was a second marriage for both of them.

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