Observing that the treatment meted out to him by his wife amounted to “mental cruelty”, the Bandra Family Court recently granted divorce to a senior BMC officer from his wife, whom he had accused of ‘creating a scene’ in his office over an alleged affair with a colleague, among other things.The court held that her behavior amounted to ‘mental cruelty’ after the colleague’s husband, who the officer allegedly had an affair with, told the court otherwise.The duo were married in 1985 in Jammu while both of them were serving in the Indian Army, and have two children. When the officer, now 52, joined BMC, his wife took up a job as a teacher in Mumbai. The officer alleged that his wife had tarnished his image both professionally and socially.He narrated an instance in which she stormed into his office enquiring about his whereabouts, and then left her mangalsutra with his PA and went all they way up to the Municipal Commissioner to complain about his alleged affair.The court observed that these were instances of grave humiliation and definitely amounted to mental cruelty. “The wife has portrayed such behaviour amounting to anguish and pain in her husband’s mind by meeting the Municipal Commissioner and talking about his affair. Lack of physical intimacy between the couple for a decade and quarrelling with him are grave instances of cruelty,” Principal Judge Laxmi Rao said.The wife’s allegations against the officer fell flat after the colleague’s husband told the court that the officer’s wife had been spreading rumors about the affair and tarnishing his wife’s image as well. He further denied that his wife spoke extensively to the officer. “She has been misbehaving with my wife and damaging her reputation, but since she lives alone (her husband having left her) I have ignored her unbecoming conduct,” he said.The officer’s advocate, Mrunalini Deshmukh, argued that his wife did not like the municipal officers ‘Marathi culture’ or wear a bindi like other Maharashtrian wives. She picked fights with him on trivial issues and neither his mother nor his ‘Marathi’ friends were welcome at home.The wife, through her advocate Abhay Thorat, said her husband used her to fulfill his ‘sexual desires’ after he came home drunk each night. Moreover, when she was forced to work as a teacher as the officer didn’t give her any money, she alleged that he taunted her saying “all working ladies are used for sex in the organisation.”The court ruled in the officer’s favour after his wife couldn’t prove his alleged affair with a BMC colleague.