Madurai (PTI): A woman's disinclination to cook food cannot be considered a valid reason for granting divorce, the Madurai bench of Madras High Court has ruled.

Dismissing an appeal filed by a Kanyakumari-based engineer, who had sought divorce from his wife, Justice G Rajasuriya said "by no stretch of imagination, a wife's disinclination to cook could be a ground for divorce".

The engineer, who got married in 1999, submitted that his wife refused to cook as she feared handling knives and it amounted to physical and mental cruelty, a ground for divorce.

The judge said that though there was no harm if a husband expected his wife to cook food, it could not be reason for granting divorce on the ground of physical or mental cruelty.

A principal sub-judge in Nagercoil had granted him divorce 2004, but a district judge reversed the order in 2006 on petition by the woman expressing wish to live with him. The engineer filed the present appeal against this order.

Judge Rajasuriya said that it was crystal clear that the "temperament" of the husband towards the wife was not proper.

"He started looking at wife as though she had psychiatric problem and that she deliberately avoided cooking. His attitude is the root cause of the matrimonial rift."

The engineer also contended that his wife was not cooperating in physical relations and her "repulsive and eccentric behaviour" had affected the calm at his house.

To this, the judge said that the husband has chosen to use "harsh terms" against wife.

"If the wife was not cooperative how she became pregnant and delivered a child within two years of marriage," the judge asked.