Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

"......10. The legal concept of cruelty which is not defined by statute, is generally described as conduct of such character as to have caused danger to life, limb or health (bodily or mental) or as to give rise to a reasonable apprehension of such danger. The general rule in all questions of cruelty is that the whole matrimonial relations must be considered, that rule is of special value when the cruelty consists not of violent acts but of injurious reproaches, complaints, accusations or taunts. It may be mental, such as indifference and frigidity towards wife, denial of company to her, hatred and abhorrence for wife, or physical like acts of violence and abstinence from sexual intercourse without reasonable cause....."