Matrimonial relationships appear to have been influenced by the consumer culture of “use and throw”, which is evident from the rise in live-in relationships, said the Kerala High Court, while rejecting a divorce plea by a 51-year-old man. The court further moralised that newer generations see marriage as “evil”.
“Live-in relationships are on the rise. Just say good-bye when things fall apart,” the bench of Justices A Muhammed Mustaque and Sophy Thomas said while dismissing a divorce plea of a man who abandoned his wife and three daughters after nine years of marriage subsequent to an alleged affair with another woman since 2017.
“There is nothing to show that the chances of an amicable reunion are foreclosed forever” as his wife, 38, is willing to accept him back, the High Court order said, adding that under Divorce Act 1869, which applies to Christian marriages, the husband has not been able to prove any cruelty by the wife.
The husband, whose plea for divorce was rejected by a family court, had moved the high court in appeal, claiming cruelty on the part of his wife. “The normal human reactions or responses from a wife, on knowing that her husband was having an illicit connection with another lady, cannot be termed as behavioural abnormality or cruelty from the part of the wife, so as to dissolve their marriage,” the bench said.
The wife was also supported by her mother-in-law and her husband’s relatives.
“Nowadays, the younger generation thinks that marriage is an evil that could be avoided to enjoy free life without any liabilities or obligations. They would expand the word ‘WIFE’ as ‘Worry Invited For Ever’ substituting the old concept of ‘Wise Investment For Ever’,” reads the order.
The couple — from Alappuzha district, but settled in Saudi Arabia for over a decade — got married in 2009. In 2018, the husband moved a family court for divorce.
“Kerala, known as God’s Own Country, was once famous for its well-knit family bondage. But the present trend, it seems to break the nuptial tie on flimsy or selfish reasons, or for extra-marital relationships, even unmindful of their children,” the court order, authored by Justice Sophy Thomas, said. It refuses to consider “mere quarrels, ordinary wear and tear of matrimonial relationships or casual outburst of some emotional feelings” as cruelties, the order cited.
Also Read: https://www.vibesofindia.com/marriage-dissolved-as-man-compares-wife-to-other-women/
