Kerala HC grants divorce, citing cruelty in marriage
The Kerala High Court ruled that a wife's demand to live separately from her husband's parents without a valid reason constitutes cruelty, granting the husband a divorce. The court found the wife's behavior, including cutting off communication and excluding the husband from child-rearing decisions, to be grounds for marital dissolution.
Why it matters
This ruling provides a legal precedent regarding marital expectations and the definition of cruelty within the context of traditional joint-family structures in India.
The Kerala High Court has held that a woman demanding a separate residence away from her husband’s family without sufficient reason, amounted to an act of cruelty.
A Division Bench of Justice Satish Ninan and Justice P. Krishna Kumar said this while considering an appeal filed by the husband who challenged a family court order that rejected his petition for divorce. The wife returned to Kerala from Dubai where she stayed with her husband’s family, on her seventh month of pregnancy. She did not return to his house even after the birth of their child, he submitted.
She also blocked his calls and that all communications were through her brother. Moreover, she put the condition that they live separately from his parents. The other acts of ‘cruelty’ included conduct of the child’s naming and feeding ceremonies without consulting him.
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