Whether court can grant divorce to husband when wife calls husband Hijra?

MUMBAI: Two cases in the family court have shown how all-encompassing 'mental cruelty' can be in divorce matters. A husband called a 'hijra' by his wife for his inability to appease her in bed and a woman whose husband often deliberately switched off the fan in her room both got divorce from their spouses recently, with the woman in the second case getting a Rs 10 lakh alimony.

In the first case, the man said he had married the woman in 2011. He alleged that she was not interested in household work but only in sex and had threatened to harm herself and falsely implicate him and his family members in police cases. The court said his case had been proven, entitling him to get divorce on grounds of cruelty.

In the second instance, the woman filed a petition in 2012 seeking the end of her 14-year marriage. She alleged that her husband would not allow her to use the fan even during summer months, saying it would lead to inflated power bills.

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