Dismissing the plea of the man, who alleged his wife’s drug addiction led to “grave mental cruelty” and hence a ground for divorce, Additional District Judge Atul Kumar Garg said in a recent order that it was a “simple case of the woman consuming the medicine as a habit to mollify her persistent stomach ache”.

The husband, a resident of Karawal Nagar, had also alleged that his wife was treated for drug addiction at a Delhi Police-run rehabilitation centre in October 2004, but “she got herself discharged from there” in the middle of the medication.

He further contended that she refused to do household chores and humiliated his parents in front of guests on many occasions, amounting to cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act.

Opposing the divorce plea, the wife contended that the suit was a tool by her husband to get rid of her and that she would take the impugned pills only to pacify her abdominal pain. She said she had performed all her duties as a wife and a daughter-in-law in her matrimonial home.

Finding substance in the woman’s argument, the ADJ noted that the man had adduced no medical records to establish that she had a history of drug addiction and that the pills were in fact narcotics.

“It is also not the case of the man that his wife would take the alleged prohibited drug which caused utmost harassment to him and that she would go away without informing him and he was forced to bring her home from the streets,” the ADJ said, while observing that no element of cruelty was involved in the alleged act.