Ranchi: The Jharkhand High Court has ruled that a woman’s decision to apply kajal and lipstick in the middle of the night cannot be treated as evidence of mental illness. Upholding an earlier order of the Giridih Family Court, the High Court dismissed a husband’s appeal seeking divorce from his wife on the ground that she allegedly suffered from a psychiatric disorder.
A Division Bench of Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Sanjay Prasad found that the husband had failed to produce any medical evidence to support his claims.
The husband, who married the woman in 2015 through an arranged marriage, claimed he became suspicious after seeing his wife applying kajal and lipstick at around 2 am. He alleged that her family had concealed her mental condition before the wedding and sought dissolution of the marriage on that basis.
However, the court found that the allegation was based only on suspicion. It noted that although the husband claimed his wife had received psychiatric treatment, he failed to present any psychiatrist, medical records or expert testimony to support the accusation, NIE reported.
The court observed, “So far as the mental disorder of the respondent is concerned, the petitioner in his cross-examination at para-12 has stated that he noticed abnormal behaviour when the respondent applied kajal and lipstick while standing in front of the wardrobe at night, which frightened him. However, the deposition nowhere indicates that the respondent behaved or acted like a mentally ill person.”
It further stated, “It is a general phenomenon for a newly married wife to adorn herself at any time after marriage.”
The High Court stressed that mental illness can be a valid ground for divorce only when supported by credible medical evidence showing that the condition is serious enough to make normal married life impossible.
The judges also pointed out that the marriage had been arranged and that the husband had met the woman in the presence of both families before the wedding. If there had been any unusual behaviour, he could have noticed it before the marriage, the court observed.
The couple lived together for nearly two and a half years before the husband left his wife at her parental home on July 10, 2017. He filed for divorce the following day.
During the proceedings, the wife denied suffering from any mental illness and alleged that she had been falsely labelled after her family failed to meet dowry demands. She told the court that her father transferred Rs 1 lakh to the husband’s account through RTGS, but when an additional Rs 2 lakh was not paid, she faced physical and mental harassment before being abandoned.
The court also noted that throughout reconciliation efforts, the wife consistently expressed her willingness to resume married life, while the husband refused to take her back.
Dismissing the appeal, the High Court held that the husband had failed to prove either mental illness or desertion. It concluded that he could not benefit from his own conduct and upheld the Family Court’s decision refusing to grant a divorce.
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