WHEN THE COMPLAINT IS THE CRUELTY: EXAMINING THE SUPREME COURT’S RULING ON FALSE LITIGATION AS GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE

In K. Srinivas Rao v. D.A. Deepa, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court (Ranjana Prakash Desai and Aftab Alam, JJ.) held on 22 February 2013 that a wife’s indecent complaint against her husband’s family, followed by a sustained series of proceedings, amounted to mental cruelty under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. The case is routinely cited for the proposition that false complaints constitute cruelty. This commentary argues that the decision rests on the proven falsity of one indecent allegation, not on the failure of a criminal case, and that its treatment of later appeals as part of the cruelty is the most doubtful step in the reasoning.