In Brief
A wife petitioned for divorce on grounds of cruelty after 15 years of separation from her husband. The Trial Court and High Court declined the decree. The Supreme Court allowed the appeal, holding that cruelty must be assessed contextually based on gender, social status, and individual circumstances. The Court emphasized Parliament's clear intent to liberalize divorce under the 1976 Amendment Act while protecting estranged wives. Since the marriage had irretrievably broken down, the parties had remained separated for over 15 years, and both had settled separately without willingness to cohabitate, the Court granted divorce while cautioning against hyper-technical approaches to matrimonial disputes.
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