Hyderabad, 7 January. The Telangana High Court, while hearing a case, has ruled that in case both husband and wife are employed, a woman not cooking food or not helping her mother-in-law cannot be considered cruelty and divorce cannot be granted on this basis.

In fact, a man from LB Nagar in Hyderabad had filed a petition to cancel the marriage, accusing his wife of cruelty. The lower court had rejected his petition, after which he appealed in the High Court. The division bench of Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya and Justice Nagesh Bhimapaka heard the case and gave its verdict rejecting the petitioner’s appeal.

not cooking Why not ‘cruelty’?

The court said that the husband works from 1 pm to 10 pm while the wife works from 9 am to 6 pm. In such a situation, not cooking food in the morning cannot be considered cruel. On the husband’s claim that his wife often goes to her maternal home and does not stay with him, the court noted that the husband has given contradictory statements. At one place he said that she lived with him for five months and at another place he said that she lived with him only for three months during their 21-month marriage. The court also said that the wife’s living with her parents after miscarriage cannot be considered cruelty.

Court decision on separate house

It is noteworthy that the Supreme Court has said that demanding a separate house comes under the ambit of cruelty, but the High Court clarified that it depends on the facts of each case. In the present case, the court held that the wife herself had not proposed separation but her lawyer had advised her to do so, hence it could not amount to cruelty. The court refused to accept the husband’s allegations as cruelty and rejected his appeal and refused to grant divorce.