Mumbai: The Bombay high court has set aside a family court’s order that granted divorce to a man on the ground of cruelty solely based on WhatsApp chats with his wife. “Merely relying on the WhatsApp chat, the divorce decree cannot be granted, since it is not proved by leading evidence,” said Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande in the Feb 27 order. They remanded the matter back to the Nashik family court, “granting opportunity to the appellant-wife to be heard and liberty to lead evidence”.
The wife challenged the family court’s May 2025 judgment and order that allowed her husband’s petition for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act’s Section 13 (1) (ia) for cruelty. Her advocate, Shubham Sane, said the order was passed ex parte. The family court judge relied upon WhatsApp chats to prove there was cruelty at the hands of the respondent wife.The family court’s observations stated the husband’s “unchallenged testimony” is supported by WhatsApp as well as SMS chats. The chats clearly show the wife’s insistence to shift to Pune by leaving his parents in Nashik, it said. There were “derogatory” messages on her sister-in-law and mother-in-law. Disillusioned by her husband’s refusal to shift to Pune, she used “pressure tactics, emotional blackmail and intemperate language against the husband and in-laws and subjected everyone to mental cruelty”. “A wife cannot use such pressure tactics, therefore, the petitioner is not supposed to live with the respondent (wife). Hence, the petitioner is entitled to divorce,” the family court judge had stated.Upon perusal of the family court’s observations, the HC judges said it is apparent the husband’s testimony was supported by the chats. “There is no opportunity given to rebut the said evidence by the wife,” they added. They further noted that the family court, relying on its observations, had held that cruelty was proved against the husband at the hands of the wife and accordingly, the husband needs to be granted a divorce decree on the ground of cruelty. The judges then said a divorce decree cannot be granted by merely relying on chats, “since it is not proved by leading evidence”. Therefore, “the judgment and decree of divorce needs to be set aside by remanding the matter back to the family court”. “The matter is remanded back for determination of all the issues raised in the petition by leading evidence,” they directed.In the meantime, as suggested by the husband’s advocate Sanjay Shinde, the judges directed that the “parties are at liberty to explore the possibility of settlement through mediation”.
