Withholding Intimacy Without Reason Is Mental Cruelty
A wife challenged the divorce her husband had won. The Supreme Court upheld it, holding that persistent refusal of conjugal relations without reasonable cause is mental cruelty — and dissolved the marriage under Article 142.
The Court upheld the decree of divorce. Denial of conjugal rights, including persistent refusal of sexual intercourse without a reasonable cause, constitutes mental cruelty and is a valid ground for divorce under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act. Withholding sexual intimacy inflicts severe emotional distress and undermines the bedrock of marriage. With the parties living separately for some fifteen years, the Court exercised its power under Article 142 to dissolve the marriage on the ground of irretrievable breakdown.
- It is cruelty under Section 13(1)(ia), not a separate or lesser ground.
- The refusal must be persistent and without reasonable cause. The qualification matters; illness or other real cause is a different case.
- Sleeping arrangements were evidence. The wife did not deny that the couple slept in separate rooms.
- Article 142 did the rest. Fifteen years apart made this a fit case for dissolution on irretrievable breakdown.
- Court
- Supreme Court of India
- Bench
- Justice Augustine George Masih, Justice Sanjay Karol
- Citation
- 2026 INSC 620
- Reported
- [2026] 7 S.C.R. 49
- Case
- CIVIL APPEAL/8391/2026
- Decided
- 1 June 2026
- Outcome
- Appeal dismissed; decree of divorce upheld and marriage dissolved under Article 142
What happened
The husband petitioned for divorce on the grounds of cruelty and desertion. The Family Court dismissed it, holding he had failed to prove cruelty by the wife.
The High Court set that aside and granted the divorce, finding cruelty on three counts: she denied sexual relations on several occasions, there was desertion by long absence from the matrimonial home, and the parties had been living separately for some fifteen years. The wife appealed.
Why the divorce stood
The Court held that denial of conjugal rights, including persistent refusal of sexual intercourse without reasonable cause, constitutes mental cruelty and is a valid ground under Section 13(1)(ia). Withholding sexual intimacy inflicts severe emotional distress and undermines the bedrock of the marriage.
On the facts, the wife had not denied that the couple used to sleep in different rooms. The acceptance of cruelty as a ground was therefore correct.
Given how long the parties had lived apart, the Court held this a fit case for the relationship to be brought to an end, and exercised its power under Article 142 to do complete justice by dissolving the marriage.
Who argued it
Appearances as recorded in the judgment of the Court.
Frequently asked
Is refusing physical relations a ground for divorce in India?
Persistent refusal without reasonable cause amounts to mental cruelty and is a valid ground under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, on this judgment.
Does one refusal count?
No. The Court's language is persistent refusal, and without reasonable cause. A single instance, or refusal for a genuine reason, is a different case.
What is Article 142 doing in a divorce case?
It allows the Supreme Court to do complete justice — here, to dissolve a marriage that had irretrievably broken down after about fifteen years of separation.
Pleading cruelty of this kind
- Plead persistence, not a single refusal. The holding turns on persistent refusal without reasonable cause.
- Anticipate the reasonable-cause defence — illness, treatment, or the other spouse's conduct — and meet it on the evidence.
- Corroborate with the surrounding facts. Separate rooms went undenied here and did real work.
- Where the separation has run for years, plead irretrievable breakdown as well; Article 142 is available to the Supreme Court, not to the courts below.
Source. Supreme Court of India, 2026 INSC 620, [2026] 7 S.C.R. 49, CIVIL APPEAL/8391/2026, decided 1 June 2026 by Justice Augustine George Masih, Justice Sanjay Karol. This explainer is written from the judgment text as reported.
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