WIFE NOT A DEEMED MAID

 

Bombay High Court, this month (May 8) dismissed a husband's plea for divorcing his wife on grounds of cruelty.

The Honouable Court made it explicit that a wife's refusal to perform daily chores did not qualify as mental cruelty.

The judgement reads:

"Mere failure of wife to do chores such as cooking, cleaning does not automatically amount to cruelty  as marriage is a partnership of equals, and not a service contract and the wives are not 'deemed maids.'

This is a welcome judgement in the Indian context. Here, marriages occur in general by parental choices. Male chauvinism relegates the woman to cooking and household chores in addition to managing her own job if she is employed. The society expects the man to dissociate himself from such mundane tasks at home. 

Marriages dissolve when the woman questions this equation.