Divorce — Mere FIR Not Cruelty · 5 September 2026
Telangana High Court Sets Aside Divorce Decree, Holds Mere Lodging of a 498A Complaint Ending in Acquittal Is Not Cruelty
High Court for the State of Telangana · 2026 LiveLaw (AP) 146
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A couple married in February 2009, had a daughter later that year, and had been living separately since August 2010. The husband sought divorce on the ground of cruelty, alleging the wife had harassed him, insisted on living apart from his parents, assaulted him and his mother, suffered from a concealed psychological condition, and had lodged a criminal complaint against him and his family under Section 498A IPC and the Dowry Prohibition Act — a complaint that had since ended in the accused's acquittal. The wife denied the allegations and separately sought restitution of conjugal rights. The Family Court granted the husband's divorce and dismissed the wife's plea; she appealed both findings.
The High Court set aside the Family Court's order. It held that merely lodging a criminal complaint that later ends in acquittal does not, by itself, establish cruelty, and that the husband had failed to prove his other allegations — including the claim about a concealed psychological condition — through any witness or documentary evidence. The Court further held that the Family Court had effectively granted divorce on the basis that the marriage had irretrievably broken down after a long separation, but that irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not a ground on which either a Family Court or a High Court is empowered to dissolve a marriage under the present law, and set aside the divorce decree as unreasoned.
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