Today, the division bench of the Karnataka High Court comprising Justices Alok Aradhe and Anant Ramanath Hegde held that has calling a husband dark-skinned amounted to cruelty and underlined it as a strong reason for granting a divorce.

The court observed this in a recent judgment while granting divorce to a 44-year-old man from his 41-year-old wife, reported news agency PTI.

The court granted divorce to the Couple since wife used to insult the husband on the daily bases because of his dark skin tone and, for the same reason, had moved away from the company of the husband without any cause, the court noted.

The couple got in 2007 and later were blessed with a girl.

Back in 2012, the husband approached a family court in Bengaluru, seeking a divorce.

"It is the case of the husband where the wife used to humiliate him on the pretext that he is dark-skinned. He has further stated that the husband used to bear insult for the sake of the child," the court noted.

The wife filed a case under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code against her husband and in-laws. Wife also filed a case under the Domestic Violence Act and left with the child to live with her parents.

In the family court, she refuted the accusations and counterclaimed that her husband and his relatives were mistreating her and subjecting her to cruelty. She asserted that they were demanding a dowry from her and restricting her from going out with her child.

Additionally, she contended that her husband was involved in an extramarital affair, resulting in a child with another woman.

"The wife has not made any attempt to join the company of the husband to come back and the evidence on record would establish that she was not interested in the marriage because of the dark complexion of the husband," the court observed.

"By referring to these contentions, it is urged that the family court ought to have granted a decree for the dissolution of marriage," it noted.