Not easy to live with a Partner who has mental health issues, says HC ending a 16-year-old marriage

 

It is not easy to live with a partner who has mental health issues, the High Court of Delhi said, ending a sixteen-year-old marriage where the estranged wife hid that she was suffering from schizophrenia.

“Marriage is not made of only happy memories & good times, & two people in a marriage have to face challenges & weather the storm together. It is not easy to live with a partner who has mental health issues, & such ailments come with their own challenges for the person facing the problem, & even more so for the spouse. There needs to be an understanding of the problems in a marriage, & communication between the partners — especially when one of the two partners in a marriage is facing challenges of their own,” a bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi & Justice Jasmeet Singh noted, allowing the husband’s plea.

The HC also took adverse view of the wife’s failure to disclose her mental health disorder before her marriage, pointing out that this “constituted a fraud perpetrated upon the appellant.”

It noted that the wife never made the husband aware of her disorder, & instead passed it off as headaches.

The Court noted that “Headaches by themselves are not a disease. They are only symptoms of a disease. The respondent does not state what caused her such serious & frequent headaches, which debilitated her from completing her studies".

The HC also noted that the wife’s refusal to undergo a medical examination by the medical board of experts “leads to the inference that she was not prepared to face the medical board as that could have exposed the condition of her mental wellbeing, & would have established the allegation that she was suffering from schizophrenia. Why else would such a spouse — who claims to not be suffering from any mental ailment — who has preferred a petition to seek restitution of conjugal rights, & expresses her desire to live with the appellant husband, not undergo such medical examination?”

It noted that the wife scuttled the court’s efforts to arrive at a definite finding of the truth.

It observed that “The only way of conclusively determining the mental health of the respondent is by subjecting the respondent to an examination by an expert medical board. The appellant has significantly discharged the onus by leading cogent evidence, & raised a preponderance of probability that the respondent is suffering from schizophrenia".

The HC said the conduct of the wife & her father has resulted in a situation where the life of the husband “has been ruined & he has remained stuck in this relationship for 16 years without any resolution. In the most important years of his life, when the appellant would have otherwise enjoyed marital & conjugal bliss & satisfaction, he has had to suffer due to the obstinacy displayed by not only the respondent, but even her father, who appears to have been calling the shots in relation to the matrimonial dispute raised by the appellant.”

Source Link 

Social media is bold.

Social media is young.

Social media raises questions.

 Social media is not satisfied with an answer.

Social media looks at the big picture.

 Social media is interested in every detail.

social media is curious.

 Social media is free.

Social media is irreplaceable.

But never irrelevant.

Social media is you.

(With input from news agency language)

 If you like this story, share it with a friend!  

We are a non-profit organization. Help us financially to keep our journalism free from government and corporate pressure