RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court clarified that a spouse abandoning the other in a state of temporary passion, without intending to permanently cease cohabitation, will not amount to desertion.According to the court, abandonment cannot be proved for divorce merely based on physical separation. Rather, it said, abandonment will be considered when a husband or wife has the intention to permanently end the marital relationship, and not just physical separation.With this, the court of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad and Justice Rajesh Kumar rejected the divorce petition of Arun Kumar.Respondent’s advocate Rajeeva Sharma informed that Arun Kumar, a police officer, accusing his wife of cruelty and abandonment, had sought divorce. He alleged that his wife had left him in 2016 and did not resume the marital relationship, but the wife denied these allegations and said that she is still living with her children in her husband’s house.“The family court had rejected this petition, as Arun Kumar could not prove his allegations, following which, he approached Jharkhand High Court, which upheld the decision of the family court,” said the respondent’s advocate.The court clarified that abandonment requires not only physical separation, but also proving that one party had the intention to end the marriage forever.In its order dated April 24, the court further explained that the definition of ‘desertion’ under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act means the desertion of a party by the other party to the marriage “without reasonable cause and the consent or against the wish of such party, and includes the willful neglect of the petitioner by the other party to the marriage”.
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