Wife’s failure to veil cannot be a ground for divorce: High Court

aajtak.in

• Prayagraj,
• 03 January 2025,
• (Updated 03 January 2025, 3:04 PM IST)

Allahabad High Court has said that not keeping the wife from purdah is not cruelty and it cannot be a ground for divorce. The division bench of Justice Soumitra Dayal Singh and Justice Donadi Ramesh was hearing an appeal filed by a person. During this time the division bench made this comment.

According to the news agency report, the husband had given two grounds for divorce in the petition filed in the court. The first basis is that the wife has independent thoughts and goes to the market and other places as per her wish without asking him, and the wife does not wear purdah.

The second ground given by the husband was that both of them had been away from each other for a long time, hence a divorce was required. The court accepted the second ground and granted the divorce. In fact, husband and wife live away from each other for almost 23 years. The lower court had already rejected the man’s divorce petition.

Have been away from each other for more than two decades

Both of them were married on 26 February 1990 and their ‘Gauna’ took place on 4 December 1992. Actually Gauna is a Hindu marriage ceremony in Northern India, when the bride goes to her husband’s house after the marriage.

Also read: Allahabad High Court notice to Congress on ‘Nyaya’ scheme

The court accepted the man’s appeal

About three years after Gauna, on 2 December 1995, a son was born to them. Although after some time there was a distance between them and they lived together occasionally, but they have not lived together for more than 23 years. His son has now become an adult.

Accepting the man’s appeal, the court said that the appellant can claim mental cruelty as his wife has been separated for a long time.