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Jharkhand High Court Upholds Divorce Over Wife’s Concealed Age and Life-Term Murder Conviction

The ruling characterizes deliberate pre-marital concealment of material facts as mental cruelty under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act.

Overview

  • A division bench of Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Arun Kumar Rai dismissed the wife's appeal in F.A. No. 137 of 2022.
  • The court affirmed the Family Court, Gumla, finding that suppression of true age and a life sentence for murder destroyed the thread of trust.
  • Records noted the wife had spent over two years in custody following the conviction, which the husband said he learned only after the 2019 marriage in Village Pantha, PS Basia.
  • The husband also alleged threats and absence of conjugal relations, while the wife denied concealment, claimed false implication, and said she wished to continue the marriage.
  • Citing Supreme Court precedent on cruelty, the High Court held the relationship was non-repairable and that the decree of dissolution required no interference.