Marriage is not a licence to control, command, dominate or conquer the individuality, freedom and will of the other party, the state high court recently held, noting that a husband cannot dictate where his wife goes, how she lives or compel her to perform household chores or care for his parents.
The court added that any attempt to restrict a woman’s autonomy was “contrary to equality, human dignity and social justice.”
The court took strong exception to the man’s claim that his wife had left the matrimonial home and gone to her parents’ house “without obtaining permission from him or his parents. Justice Sumalatha questioned why a married woman should need her husband’s or in-laws’ permission to visit her parents. The court, however, found no grounds to interfere with the Family Court’s order.
Justice Chillakur Sumalatha made the observations in an August 3 order, where she dismissed a revision petition filed by a man challenging a family court order directing him to pay ₹ 9,000 a month as maintenance to his wife and minor daughter. He had sought a reduction in the ₹ 5,000 monthly maintenance awarded to his wife and ₹ 4,000 awarded for their minor daughter.
“This court does not understand why an Indian woman is required to take permission of all present at her matrimonial home to fulfil her basic desire of visiting her parents house as and when she wishes and feels to go,” the judge said. The man’s averment, the high court said, revealed his “mindset” and his desire to “command and control the behaviour and wishes” of his wife. “A wife’s dedication to family can never be measured by obedience and submission,” the court said. “Marriage is not a relationship between unequals,” it added.
The man had claimed before the court that he earned his livelihood through physical labour and had to maintain his parents.
