The Allahabad High Court has declared that a woman’s decision to not wear a ‘purdah’ (veil) does not amount to cruelty against her husband, and thus, cannot serve as grounds for divorce.
A division bench consisting of Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh and Justice Donadi Ramesh made this remark during the hearing of an appeal submitted by a man whose divorce request was rejected by a lower court.
The court approved the divorce, citing abandonment, since the husband and wife had been separated for more than 23 years.
The court further observed that alimony arrangements were not needed because both individuals were financially self-sufficient. Their only offspring, now grown, stayed with the mother, and no further financial demands were made.
By granting the husband’s appeal, the high court annulled a 2004 lower court ruling that had denied his request for divorce.
The court allowed the man’s appeal, saying, “The appellant may claim mental cruelty committed by the respondent to the extent she has deserted the appellant for very long. In any case, the respondent (wife) is found to have deserted the appellant and to have sustained that desertion for a long period, which has now exceeds 23 years.”
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“That wilful act of the respondent and her refusal (even now) to cohabit with the appellant to revive her matrimonial relationship appears to be an act of desertion committed of degree as may itself lead to dissolution of her marriage. Here, we note, the respondent has not only refused cohabitation with the appellant, but she has also never made any effort to seek restitution of her conjugal rights,” the court added.
