The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Refusal to cook no ground for divorce: court

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Monday, Feb 25, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Refusal to cook no ground for divorce: court

Mohamed Imranullah S.

MADURAI: Wife’s reluctance to cook food for her husband and his parents cannot be a reason for granting divorce on the ground of physical/mental cruelty, the Madras High Court has held.

Dismissing a second appeal filed before the Madurai Bench, Justice G. Rajasuria said: “There is no harm on the part of a husband in expecting his wife to cook food…But by no stretch of imagination, the wife’s disinclination to cook could be countenanced as one of the grounds for granting divorce.”

The appellant, an engineer from Kanyakumari, said that he married a 31-year-old woman in June 1999, after rejecting many younger brides, expecting that she would cook food for him and his aged parents. But his wife refused, on the pretext of having a fear of knife. She was also suffering from a mental disorder and was not cooperative in sexual intercourse, he alleged.

Allowing his petition, the Nagercoil Principal Sub Judge granted divorce to the couple in 2004. However, the wife went on appeal expressing her willingness to cohabit with the engineer. In 2006, the Kanyakumari District Judge reversed the judgment and decree of divorce and hence the present appeal.

Mr. Justice Rajasuria said: “It is crystal clear to the judicial mind that the temperament of the husband towards the wife ever since the inception of marriage was not proper. He started looking at the wife as though she was having psychiatric problem and that she deliberately avoided cooking. His attitude towards her actually paved the root cause for the matrimonial rift between them.”

The appellant had contended that his wife’s “mercurial, repulsive, obnoxious and eccentric behaviour had jeopardised the peaceful and calm atmosphere” at his home. To this, the Judge said: “As such, the husband has chosen to use such harsh terms against his wife. According to him, all such cruel acts allegedly occurred before she became pregnant. If that be so, it is not known as to how she became pregnant and delivered a child within two years of their marriage.”

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