If a wife puts pressure on her husband to abandon his parents, he may be well within his right to seek a divorce, the Supreme Court has ruled in a path-breaking decision.
Calling it a “Western thought” where a man gets separated from his family on getting married, the apex court felt that Indian culture casts a “pious obligation” on the son to look after his aged parents, particularly when they have little or no means of income.
One Narendra from Karnataka approached the SC for divorce on being pressurised by his wife Meena to abandon his parents and settle with her alone. Her constant taunts left him mentally traumatised. She even alleged baseless charges of extra-marital affairs to sully his reputation and also attempted suicide in July 1995.
The Bench of Justices Anil R Dave and lN Rao heard the appeal of the husband, who was aggrieved by the Karnataka High Court order of March 8, 2006 setting aside the divorce decreed by a family court. The wife did not turn up despite repeated reminders and so the appeal was heard with her version being gathered from the trial court and High Court records.
Here was a case where the parents were aged and solely dependent on the married son’s income. The wife, on the other hand, did not like the husband’s income to be spent on maintaining his parents. The Bench observed, “In a Hindu society, it is a pious obligation of the son to maintain the parents. If a wife makes an attempt to deviate from the normal practice and custom of the society, she must have some justifiable reason for that.” The court found no other reason except the monetary consideration of the wife.
Holding this against the wife, the judges said, “No husband would tolerate this and no son would like to be separated from his old parents who are dependent upon his income. The persistent efforts of the wife to constrain the appellant (husband) to be separated from the family would be torturous for the husband and in our opinion…this constitutes an act of cruelty.”
Equally, the wife’s conduct to attempt suicide to achieve this end made the court imagine what “tremendous stress” it would impose on the husband, who has to face the legal consequences, besides suffering loss of mental peace and in his career.
Comparing India with the West, the court said that a son maintaining his parents is absolutely justified as per Indian culture and ethos. Unlike in the West where a son separates from family on getting married, the court held that an Indian wife “is expected to be with the husband’s family” and should never insist on staying separately with her husband as she must integrate with the family and form part of the husband’s family. Seen in this context, the court held the wife’s behavior to be “terrifying and horrible” meriting divorce.