A still from the film Daman in which Sayaji Shinde (left) played Raveena Tandon’s abusive husband

New Delhi, March 5: Be warned, abusive spouses — if you want your marriage to stick, then sweeten your “filthy” tongue.

The Supreme Court has ruled that even “verbal abuses” could be seen as cruelty, a ground for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act.

A bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat said even if there was no physical violence, constant use of “filthy and abusive” language could amount to cruelty.

“Mental cruelty may consist of verbal abuses and insults by using filthy and abusive language leading to constant disturbance of mental peace of the other party,” the court said, while reject- ing an appeal against a Rajasthan High Court order allowing a divorce plea by a husband.

The apex court said cruelty in matrimonial life could be “mental or physical, intentional or unintentional”. It may be words, gestures or by mere silence, violent or non-violent.

The “psychological changes” in a spouse’s conduct have to be borne in mind while deciding a plea for divorce, the court added, stressing that sometimes even “insignificant or trifling” conduct might cause pain in the mind of another.

The court, however, cautioned that every matrimonial conduct, which might cause annoyance to the other, may not amount to cruelty. “It must be something more serious than ordinary wear and tear of married life,” the court said.

So judges dealing with such matters, the bench warned, should bear in mind that the problems that come before them are those of human beings.

If cruelty is physical, a court would have no problem in determining it, as it is a question of fact and degree, the bench said.

But if it is mental, courts should inquire into the nature of the cruel treatment and then its impact on the mind of the spouse — whether “it caused reasonable apprehension that it would be harmful or injurious to live with the other”.