A family court in Mumbai has ruled that objecting to wife dressing up in kurta and jeans and forcing her to wear sari amounts to cruelty inflicted by husband and can be a ground to seek divorce.
The wife told the court that after her marriage in December 2010, her husband did not buy her any clothes and therefore, she purchased jeans and kurti s from her salary earnings. However, the husband did not allow her to wear them, saying that she should wear only saris. In an order passed on June 24, principal judge Dr Laxmi Rao granted divorce to the wife on the ground of cruelty as defined under Section 27( 1)( d) of the Special Marriage Act, 1954.
“In view of the averments made in the petition which have gone unchallenged, it can be said that the petitioner has proved her case. Hence, she can be granted divorce as prayed by her. Her plea that she was restrained from wearing jeans and kurta amounts to cruelty as defined under the Act,” the judge held.
The woman further alleged that her husband and in- laws had asked her to bring ` 1 lakh from her house or face dire consequences.
They also asked her to quit her job, but she had refused.
She alleged that she was tortured and humiliated as a result of which she suffered depression.
The woman told the court that on March 15, 2011, she was thrown out of her marital home as she failed to bring the money.
Since then, she has been living at her parents’ house.
She further complained that her husband never made attempts to bring her back home in Ambarnath town of Thane district where the couple lived. On the contrary, he sent vulgar SMS messages to her and her parents on their mobile phones in a bid to harass them. (PTI)
