New Delhi: In an interesting judgment the Supreme Court has granted divorce to an IAS officer and his IAS wife for the wife refused to bear children for her husband.
Expanding the scope for mental cruelty, the court has said that 'if the wife refuses to have/bear the child of her husband, it will be a valid ground for divorce'.
Jaya Ghosh had refused to have children saying that it would affect her career adversely.
Meanwhile, the same law will apply in the reverse - if a husband undergoes an sterlisation operation without any medical reason and if this decision is hidden from the wife it will constitute mental cruelty and be a valid ground for divorce, the court has said.
The court also stated that if the wife undergoes a vasectomy operation or abortion and hides the fact from her husband, it will be a valid reason for divorce.
A Bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal, P P Naolekar and Dalveer Bhandari, maintained that no uniform standard can ever be laid down for guidance, but "we deem it appropriate to enumerate some instances of human behaviour which may be relevant in dealing with cases of mental cruelty".
The Bench has given illustrative guidelines - 14 in all - wherein divorce on grounds of mental cruelty could be considered.
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