• Restitution of conjugal rights

Hi Sir,
The situation: Wife is not willing to live with husband. Wife is not willing to give divorce to the husband. She is keeping total custody of the child and is not allowing the husband to see the child.

My friend got married in 2010. He is from lower-middle income group. His wife is also working and is of much higher income than my friend. Due to petty issues now and then, his wife deserted him within 5 months of marriage. She was pregnant at that time and eventually gave birth to a male child in 2011.

My friend (The Husband) wants to live together with wife and child and made several efforts. But all in vain. He was never allowed see the child, even at the time of birth

Eventually, in 2015, he filed for Restitution of Conjugal Rights. The trial is about to begin. His wife is totally reluctant to join him (Counter filed to that effect). So, even if the court passes an order in his favour, his wife is not going to join him for sure. In addition, the wife would continue the fight in upper courts.

At this point, he came to accept reality and want to seek divorce on the grounds of “Desertion”.

The wife is not willing to join him in marital life. She is not willing to give him divorce unless he gives up the child. The husband is not willing to lose the child altogether. So there is no possibility for mutual consent. So, for child, he decided to file application for joint custody.

The husband is in a dilemma as to how to go about the divorce. His advocate suggested him to withdraw the RCR and file a Divorce petition with Desertion as ground. My friend wants to seek second opinion from this forum as to the right approach.
Is it possible to file Divorce petition with desertion as ground and stating that he is more than willing to live with wife and child and if that is not acceptable to the wife then he would like to get divorced ? Can the husband file Divorce petition without withdrawing his RCR petition ? Or should he absolutely withdraw the RCR petition in order to have the divorce petition admitted ?

Can the husband file a Divorce petition and ask that it be heard together with RCR petition ? He really wants to live with his wife and child. But if that is not possible, he wants divorce. Whatever it is, the wife is contesting RCR. And she would contest Divorce as well. She just wants to trouble the husband and keep the child to herself.

Would really appreciate if you can provide any suggestions or recommendations.
Asked 7 years ago in Family Law
Religion: Hindu

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7 Answers

I will advise you not to withdraw the RCR. Let it proceed until its conclusion. If it comes in the favour of the husband and the wife does not abides by the order of restitution, that in itself will become a ground fr divorce after an year. So. this way his hope of winning back his wife and child would remain alive for sometime, which is also the ultimate aim of the husband. He cannot file file a divorce along side a pending RCR. That would amount to blowing hot and cold at the same time.

So follow the course I advised because that way the hope of the husband will have some fuel at least for sometime. He may file a suit for custody and seek visitation rights as an interim measure.

Vibhanshu Srivastava
Advocate, Lucknow
9659 Answers
307 Consultations

1) withdraw RCR and file for divorce on grounds of mental cruelty and desertion

2) wife refusing to stay with husband amounts to mental cruelty

3) seek joint custody of your child

4) wife refusing to stay with husband for over 6 years amounts to desertion

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
96809 Answers
7811 Consultations

1.The ground of desertion gets relinquished once you file RCR as filing of RCR amounts to condoning all her acts of cruelty.

2. So now you can not file suit for desertion even if you withdraw the RCR.

3. You can file suit for divorce nevertheless if there is subsequent cause of action giving rise to fresh mental cruelty like abusing you publicly, filing 498A case or raising wild allegations in her reply.

Devajyoti Barman
Advocate, Kolkata
23198 Answers
511 Consultations

Hi

1) Technically the husband should have filed for divorce on the grounds of Desertion as the wife has been living separately since 2010. So as such the husband had good grounds (cruelty and desertion) for grant of divorce decree.

2) Now the husband can file an amendment petition under order 6 Rule 17 of CPC seeking to amend the petition from RCR to one seeking divorce as the case has not reached the trial stage and that wife is asking for a divorce and the courts will be inclined to grant a divorce decree provided a prayer to the effect is made by the husband also.

3) The Husband should also file for child custody and visiting rights to meet the child as the same cannot be denied by the wife / courts on any grounds and more so since the boy is now about 6 years old, courts in general will hear the matter on merits and if the husband can prove his love and affection to the male child, in all likelihood the courts may grant joint parenting rights, visitation rights and sometimes even guardianship if the wife chooses to remarry at a later date.

Hope this information is useful.

Rajgopalan Sripathi
Advocate, Hyderabad
2173 Answers
394 Consultations

If a wife refuse to live with her husband without any justified reason then the husband can apply divorce on grounds of desertion.. He can ask for custody of his children before family court..

Hemant Chaudhary
Advocate, Gurgaon
4630 Answers
67 Consultations

Hello,

First he can file a petition under section 25 and section 12 of guardianship and ward act and can seek visitation rights for the child.

In my opinion you must not withdraw your petition filed u/s 9 H.M.A for R.C.R as RCR is already in advance stage and if you file divorce on ground of dissertion she will contest it also. You can gi ahead with RCR and can file divorce on the ground of dissertion and cruelity once the RCR is decided, in that way the court will also not pass an order to pay a huge amount of alimony.

Regards

Anilesh Tewari
Advocate, New Delhi
18090 Answers
377 Consultations

If the husband wants to file divorce on the grounds of desertion, he has to withdraw the RCR petition.

his both the petitions which are in the opposite directions cannot be heard together an it is not maintainable.

if he still believes in his philosophy to live with her together then he can continue his RCR petition, let she contest or agree, he has started his mission to save his marriage, but when it fails he will realise that he wasted so many years on good for nothing issue.

The court even if it is giving a decision in his favor, the reluctant wife cannot be forced to live with him, law cannot do anything about it.

Let him file child custody case if he wants his child back to him with a petition for visitation rights also

T Kalaiselvan
Advocate, Vellore
87009 Answers
2335 Consultations

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