Delhi HC upholds family court order rejecting Omar Abdullah’s divorce plea

THE Delhi high court on Tuesday upheld a family court’s order rejecting former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah’s plea for divorce from his estranged wife, Payal, saying there was no infirmity in the judgment and that the allegations of cruelty he levelled were vague and unacceptable.

“...we find no infirmity with the view taken by the family court that the allegations of cruelty were vague and unacceptable and the appellant failed to prove any act which can be termed cruelty either physical or mental. Consequently, we find no merit in the appeal, the same is accordingly dismissed,” a bench of justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Vikas Mahajan said.

Abdullah moved the high court against the family court’s August 2016 order dismissing his divorce plea. He pleaded their marriage had irretrievably broken down and wanted to get re-married.

The family court said Abdullah failed to prove irretrievable breakdown and the claims of cruelty or desertion.

In his plea, Abdullah said that they got married in 1994 but they had not had a conjugal relationship since 2007. In September 2023, the high court directed Abdullah to pay ₹1.5 lakh to Payal monthly as interim maintenance and ₹60,000 each for the education of their two sons every month.