"Expecting Woman Of The House To Do All The Household Work Is A Primitive Mind-set, Needs A Positive Change" : Bombay High Court

Bombay High Court dismissed 35 year old man”s appeal for dissolution of marriage with his estranged wife. The High Court also observed “expecting a wife to do all the household works reflects a regressive mind-set”.

The court dismissed an appeal by the 35 year old man from Pune seeking to dissolve his marriage with his estranged wife. The man challenged the verdict of the Family Court in March – 2018 which dismissed his plea of dissolution of marriage with his 33 year old wife.

The man alleged cruelty from his wife by claiming that his wife was constantly on phone with her mother and was not doing any household chores and on many occasions he had to leave for office without having food. The appellant further alleged that the respondent wife abused his parent upon request to behave properly.

The man”s appeal which he moved through advocate AP Singh was dismissed by a division bench of Justice Nithin W Sambre and Justice Deshmukh on September 6. The appellant listed few instances which spoke about his wife”s “cruelty” towards him.

The couple tied knots in 2010 in Bihar as per the Hindu Vedic rites and registered their marriage in Pune after shifting. The marriage was registered in March 2011 under the Special Marriage Act. He claimed his wife abused him in 2011 for not attending her father”s house warming puja, which he could not attend as he was busy with his work. He added that in  fit of rage she squeezed his neck and scratched his face with her nails.

He also alleged the wife and her mother kicked him out of his bedroom when he went to sleep and that they asked security to kick him out of the house. He added his mother-in-law slapped him in front of the guard. This incident was reported to be happened back in 2012.

The list also carried an incident in 2013 when he went to meet his recently born child, his wife did not allowed him and constantly abused him which he bore silently for his child”s sake. It is stated that in the same year, his brother-in-law came to his house and the wife left his house with all her belongings. She also filed a police complaint against him. The appellant alleged that while trying to reconcile, the wife”s father abused him and her maternal uncle threatened him causing mental and physical cruelty.

The respondent wife”s advocate Amey D Deshpande opposed all the above mentioned claims and stated it to be non-maintainable. He further added that the respondent wife had been subjected to mental and physical cruelty at the hands of the appellant.

As the HC observed that the appellant’s three isolated alleged claims of “cruelty” cannot be added as cruelty as “cruelty generally does not consist of isolates acts but a series of acts over a period of time”.

Justice Deshmukh noted that “the primitive mind-set expecting the woman of the house to solely shoulder the household responsibilities needs to undergo a positive change”.

Upon the man”s plea to dissolve the marriage by stating to living apart for around 10 years and the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage, the High Court dismissed his plea under the observation that the case to dissolve the marriage was not made oit by the appellant man.