Forcing Wife To Leave Job And Live As Per Husband’s Wish & Style Amounts To Cruelty: Madhya Pradesh HC
The Madhya Pradesh High Court has held that forcing a wife to leave her job and live as per the Husband’s wish and style amounts to cruelty.
The Court set aside the order of the Family Court and dissolved the marriage between the parties. The Family Court had held, “Section 9 Hindu Marriage Act petition filed by husband is pending and thus it is clear that he intends to live with the wife, though such Section 9 petition was filed after filing of divorce petition,” while the wife argued that mere filing of a petition under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) could not mar the rights of the wife under the law.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari held, “Whether husband or wife wants to live together, it is their wish. Neither husband nor wife can force other side not to do job or do any job as per the choice of the spouse. In the present case, the husband compelled his wife to leave the government job till he gets the job. In this manner, forcing the wife to leave the job and live as per his wish and style, it amounts to cruelty.”
Advocate Raghvendra Singh Raghuvanshi appeared for the wife.
The wife had filed for divorce on grounds of cruelty under the HMA. She contended that her husband had compelled her to leave her job and insisted that she stay with him until he also got a job. The wife also submitted that the Family Court failed to appreciate that if the wife is compelled and constrained to live separately with her husband to save her life, dignity, modesty etc. and to escape the continuous physical and mental cruelty by the husband and his family members, the same cannot be considered as desertion.
The Family Court had dismissed her petition, holding that such “small quarrels cannot be termed as cruelty.”
However, the High Court allowed the appeal filed by the wife for dissolution of marriage noting that “the husband compelled his wife to leave the government job till he gets the job.”
“The learned Family Court has not considered the statement made by the appellant-wife, who specifically stated that due to the reason that respondent-husband compelled her to leave the job and stay with him, she filed the divorce petition and before that since there was compatibility issue, therefore, she issued notice to the respondent-husband requesting for mutual divorce. The respondent-husband never wanted that appellant should get divorce, this itself amounts to cruelty,” the Court remarked.
Consequently, the Court held, “In view of above, we hereby allow the present appeal by dissolving the marriage between the appellant and respondent. The impugned judgment and decree dated 17.08.2022 passed by the Additional Principal Judge, Family Court is hereby set aside.”
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the Appeal.
Cause Title: P v. N (Neutral Citation: 2024:MPHC-IND:32195)
