Apex Court has held that after acquittal from IPC 498A case, husband can file for divorce under the ground of Cruelty.
Telangana High Court said that,
14…..
Merely because the respondent has sought for maintenance or has filed a complaint against the petitioner for the offence punishable under Section 498-A of IPC, they cannot be said to be valid grounds for holding that such a recourse adopted by the respondent amounts to cruelty.”
The Supreme Court disapproved of this view.
Rani Narasimha Sastry Vs Rani Suneela Rani on 19 November, 2019The above observation of the High Court cannot be approved. It is true that it is open for anyone to file complaint or lodge prosecution for redressal for his or her grievances and lodge a first information report for an offence also and mere lodging of complaint or FIR cannot ipso facto be treated as cruelty. But when a person undergoes a trial in which he is acquitted of the allegation of offence under Section 498-A of IPC, levelled by the wife against the husband, it cannot be accepted that no cruelty has meted on the husband. As per pleadings before us, after parties having been married on 14.08.2005, they lived together only 18 months and thereafter they are separately living for more than a decade now.
Citations : 2019 SCC ONLINE SC 1595
Other Sources:
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/60266171/
https://www.casemine.com/judgement/in/5e01d7a18ef1524a1e205ef8
The High Court of Telangana decision that got set aside is here.
Index of all Domestic Violence Judgments is here.
