Forcibly Swiping Wife's ATM Card & Repeated RTIs Amount to Mental Cruelty
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In a major ruling defining the scope of financial and psychological abuse within marital disputes, the Rajasthan High Court has held that forcibly withholding a working wife’s ATM card, siphoning off her monthly salary, and filing repetitive Right to Information (RTI) petitions targeting her workplace constitute mental cruelty. Upholding a decree of divorce granted in favor of the aggrieved wife by the Alwar Family Court, a division bench comprising Justice Inderjit Singh and Justice Sangeeta Sharma formally dismissed the husband’s civil appeal challenging the dissolution of marriage. The bench emphasized that systematically depriving an earning spouse of her financial independence, neglecting her healthcare during pregnancy, and leveling unsubstantiated allegations against her moral character irreversibly destroy the foundation of matrimonial cohabitation.
Financial Deprivation, Assault, and Character Assassination: Anatomy of the Matrimonial Dispute
The legal dispute traces back to a petition filed before the Alwar Family Court by the woman, who serves as an Assistant Engineer with Jaipur Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (JVVNL). In her pleadings, she detailed continuous physical and emotional harassment, including being subjected to severe neglect during her pregnancy and physical assault by her husband. Beyond physical intimidation, the spouse forcibly seized her bank ATM debit card, routinely withdrew her hard-earned salary for his personal disposal, and falsely accused her of engaging in illicit affairs with her male colleagues at the power utility. To intensify workplace harassment and tarnish her professional image, the husband filed repeated RTI requests with her department seeking confidential salary slips and private medical histories, a deliberate act of humiliation that the court recognized as severe psychological coercion.
High Court Rejects Husband's Appeal: Family Court's 2024 Dissolution Decree Upheld
The Alwar Family Court had previously dissolved the marriage on April 29, 2024, after evaluating the evidence of persistent harassment and determining that the husband’s actions inflicted grave mental trauma. Rejecting the husband’s challenge against that judgment, the High Court observed that the estranged couple had been living separately since 2018, rendering the marriage completely dead in substance and beyond any realistic possibility of reconciliation. The division bench ruled that the combination of intrusive RTI filings, financial exploitation, character assassination, and neglect left the wife with no option but to seek legal liberation, fully justifying the dissolution of the union under Hindu matrimonial jurisprudence.
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