Compelling A Married Woman To Live In Her Parental Home Amounts To Cruelty: Madhya Pradesh High Court

The Madhya Pradesh High Court observed that compelling a married woman to live in her parental home after marriage amounts to cruelty and that for this reason, it cannot be said that she was living seperately without reasonable reason. The development came from a single judge bench comprising of Justice GS Ahluwalia who was dealing with a criminal revision petition challenging the Family Court’s order directing the husband to pay Rs.7,000/- per month to wife under sec. 125 CrPC. An application for maintenance was filed by the respondent wife on the ground that she was harrassed and beaten by her husband and in laws for the demand of dowry after which she was ousted from her matrimonial house and started residing in her parental home seven months prior to the filing of the said application. It was also the wife’s case that in the meantime, neither the husband nor the in laws made any efforts to bring her back. On the other hand, it was the case of the husband that the wife had resided in her matrimonial house for a period of four days and that she never allowed him to consummate the marriage and had allegedly questioned his potency. Further submitting that they were acquitted for the offence under sec. 498A IPC, it was submitted by the husband that he was disrespected when he had gone to the parental home of his wife for taking her back.