Supreme Court stays Chef Kunal Kapur’s Delhi HC divorce ruling

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed a Delhi High Court order that granted a divorce to celebrity chef Kunal Kapur on grounds of cruelty by his estranged wife. Issuing a notice to Kapur on a petition filed by his wife, a bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and S.V.N. Bhatti has referred the case to the Supreme Court Mediation Centre to explore the possibility of a settlement.

The high court had previously granted the divorce, stating that the woman’s conduct towards Kapur lacked dignity and empathy.

The Delhi High Court had upheld Kapur's appeal, overturning a family court’s decision that had denied him a divorce. The court ruled that making reckless, defamatory, humiliating, and unsubstantiated allegations against a spouse in public constitutes cruelty, thereby justifying the divorce.

"In the light of the aforenoted facts of the present case, we find that the conduct of the respondent (wife) towards the appellant (husband) has been such that it is devoid of dignity and empathy towards him.

"When such is the nature of one spouse towards the other, it brings disgrace to the very essence of marriage and there exists no possible reason as to why he should be compelled to live while enduring the agony of living together," the high court had said.

The estranged couple, who married in April 2008, have a son born in 2012. In his plea, Kunal Kapur, known for his role as a judge on "MasterChef India," accused his wife of consistently disrespecting his parents and humiliating him.

Conversely, his wife alleged that Kapur made false accusations to mislead the court. She claimed that she always attempted to communicate with him as a loving spouse and was loyal, but that Kapur kept her in the dark and fabricated stories to secure a divorce.

PTI