The Delhi High Court on Friday annulled the 16-year-old marriage of a man with a woman for playing fraud with him as she failed to disclose that she suffered from acute schizophrenia and declined to subject herself to a medical examination.
A bench of Justices Jasmeet Singh and Vipin Sanghi said that it was not easy to live with a partner who has mental health issues, and such ailments come with their own challenges for the person facing the problem, and even more so for the spouse.
"Marriage is not made of only happy memories and good times, and two people in a marriage have to face challenges and weather the storm together. There needs to be an understanding of the problems in a marriage, and communication between the partners– especially when one of the two partners in a marriage is facing challenges of their own. Treatment of any mental ailment requires acceptance of the same, not only by the family members but, most importantly, by the person suffering therefrom," the court added.
The bench also awarded a token cost of Rs 10,000 to the man, saying "unfortunately, the life of the appellant has been ruined and 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 and conjugal bliss and satisfaction, he has had to suffer due to the obstinacy displayed by not only the wife but even her father (also her counsel), who appears to have been calling the shots in relation to the matrimonial dispute, the bench added.
The court drew an adverse inference of the woman's outright refusal to go through the medical examination by an expert board. The court also noted that the man has significantly discharged the onus by leading cogent evidence, and raised a preponderance of probability, that she is suffering from schizophrenia.
It pointed out the family court fell in error in rejecting the man's application for her medical examination, saying he could not have been left to gather evidence of his wife's mental condition on his own.
The High Court also noted the man had shown his wife to several specialists, and the medications prescribed showed that they were relevant for the treatment of schizophrenia. Besides, he also produced the medical doctors and specialists and exhibited their prescriptions.
"The parties lived together for hardly any period, as his wife was taken away by her father after about nine weeks of marriage from the matrimonial home," the court said.
The woman, who claimed to have met with the man a few times before the marriage in 2005, also could not establish that he was made aware of the mental disorder suffered by her, which was passed off by her as mere “headaches”.
"Headaches–by themselves are not a disease. They are only symptoms of a disease. The woman does not state what caused her such serious and frequent headaches, which debilitated her from completing her studies," the court pointed out.
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