Divorce not granted; husband to pay Rs 2L for this

In July 2017, Mrs Pandey left her marital home and sent a legal notice to her husband, alleging that their marriage had broken down. Subsequently, Mr Pandey filed a divorce petition, unaware that his actions would lead to an unexpected outcome. Upon learning of his wife's affair with another woman and the two children they had together, Mrs Pandey discovered her husband's unfaithfulness when he was outside dropping the children off at school.

The court then applied Section 23(1)(a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, stating that Mr Pandey approached the court with unclean hands and took advantage of his own wrongdoing, thus denying him the divorce and imposing a cost of Rs 2 lakh on him for causing Mrs Pandey to travel from Banaras to Delhi for court hearings.