HC sets aside divorce granted to man living at RSS office alleging wife was cruel towards him
Patna, Aug 26: The Patna High Court has set aside divorce granted by a lower court to a person who lived at the local "office of RSS", abandoning his wife whom he accused of "cruelty".
A Division Bench comprising Justice P B Bajanthri and Justice Jitendra Kumar, in the judgement passed earlier this month which was uploaded on Friday, allowed the petition of Nisha Gupta, who had challenged the order dated 07.10.2017 passed by the family court at Nalanda district.
The Bench was of the view that the divorce granted to her husband Uday Chand Gupta, to whom she got married in 1987 and bore two sons, was "not sustainable in the eye of the law" since the latter "failed to prove the ground of cruelty".
"There may have been ordinary wear and tear in the matrimonial life of the parties, but certainly no cruelty is found to have been committed by the appellant/wife towards the respondent/husband. In fact, cruelty appears to have been committed the other way round", the court remarked in a judgement that runs into 47 pages.
The court noted that the wife was "still living in her matrimonial house along with her children and it is her husband, who left the house and is living in the office of RSS".The court said there was "no cogent evidence" to prove the husband's charge that the wife used to issue threats of filing false criminal cases against him but "as per evidence" the respondent used to beat his wife when she opposed his illicit relationship and that their son, who had deposed as one of the witnesses, had confirmed that "his father used to beat his mother" and even gave her electric shocks.
Nonetheless, the court pointed out, "the wife has all along maintained that she wants to live with her husband and she has always welcomed him whenever he comes home and she has never refused cohabitation".
"It is the husband who had stopped taking interest in her and he is not making efforts for cohabitation because he has been living separately from her", added the court.
The court also underscored that as per the husband their marriage "started running into rough weather since 1999 but divorce petition was filed in 2008" and "it is not explained why the husband for nine years to file the divorce petition on the ground of cruelty".
Setting aside the judgement passed on the divorce petition, the court said "both parties shall bear their own costs" and directed the Registrar General to "circulate a copy of this judgement among all Presiding Officers of Family Courts and send a copy to the Director of Bihar Judicial Academy".
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Woman, 2 sons found dead in Delhi home; suicide suspected
New Delhi (PTI): Three members of a family were found dead inside their home in southeast Delhi's Kalkaji on Friday, with police suspecting it to be a case of suicide, officials said.
Police said the incident came to light around 2.47 pm when a police team reached the premises to execute a court order related to possession of the property. When repeated knocks went unanswered, the staff used a duplicate key to open the door.
Inside, officers found Anuradha Kapoor (52) and her sons, Ashish Kapoor (32) and Chaitanya Kapoor (27), hanging from the ceiling, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Hemant Tiwari said in a statement. All three were declared dead.
A handwritten note was recovered from the room, suggesting the family had been struggling with depression.
"The handwritten note indicates emotional distress faced by the family due to which the family may have taken the extreme step," the officer said.
The bodies have been shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) mortuary for post-mortem and other legal formalities under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), police said.
Residents of the neighbourhood said they were shocked to learn about the deaths, adding that the family kept largely to themselves.
Pankaj Kashyap, a resident of Girinagar, said he learnt about the deaths while leaving for work. "I live and work here and was leaving for work when I saw many people standing outside and talking. That is how I got to know that three people had committed suicide. I also saw several police vehicles outside, but I do not know much beyond that," he said.
Baldev, another neighbour, said the family had been living in the newly constructed house for around two years. "We only knew that a mother and her two children lived there. They had moved into the newly built house around two years ago. We did not interact much with them. Today we heard that all three have committed suicide, and whatever we know is based on what people here are saying," he said.
Another neighbour, Ramesh Kumar, claimed the family had earlier attempted suicide.
"About fifteen to twenty days ago, the two sons in the family had attempted suicide and police and ambulances had come. That was when I first got to know who they were. I do not recognise them by face, but we saw the ambulances and police take the two sons that day. Today again we saw ambulances and police arriving, so everyone came out to see what had happened. I do not know how long they had been living here, but this is all we know," he said.
Police said they are examining the family's financial condition, social circumstances, and other factors that may have contributed to the incident. Further investigation is underway.
