The consumer culture of “use and throw” appears to be affecting matrimonial relations, which is evident from the rise in live-in relationships where couples say “goodbye” as and when they feel apart, the Kerala high court observed recently.
Kerala, once known for its “well-knit family bondage”, seems to be caught with the present trend of breaking nuptial tie on “flimsy” or “selfish” reasons, or for “extra-marital” relationships, even unmindful of their children, a bench of justices A Muhamed Mustaque and Sopy Thomas observed while hearing a divorce petition.
“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’,” the court said. “The consumer culture of ‘use and throw’ seems to have influenced our matrimonial relationships also. Live-in-relationships are on the rise, just to say good-bye when they fell apart.”
The court dismissed the 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. The petitioner had sought divorce from his wife on the grounds of cruelty.
“When warring couples, deserted children and desperate divorcees occupy the majority of our population, no doubt it will adversely affect the tranquility of our social life, and our society will have a stunted growth,” said the bench, adding: “Courts cannot come to the aid of an erring person to legalise his activities, which are per se illegal.”
The bench said if the husband, who was having an affair, wanted to avoid his wife and children, he cannot seek the assistance of the courts to get his “unholy alliance” or present relationship legalised.
“Law and religion consider marriage as an institution by itself and parties to the marriage are not permitted to walk away from that relationship unilaterally, unless and until they satisfy the legal requirements to dissolve their marriage through a court of law or in accordance with the personal law which governs them,” it said.
“Mere quarrels, ordinary wear and tear of matrimonial relationships or casual outburst of some emotional feelings cannot be treated as cruelties warranting a divorce.”
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 petition said that their marital relationship from 2009, when they got married, to 2018 was smooth, but thereafter, the wife developed behavioural abnormalities and quarreled with him alleging that he was having an affair.
Also read: Young generation thinks wife is 'Worry Invited For Ever': Kerala high court
“Even according to the mother and close-relatives of the appellant, such an unholy relationship started in the year 2017, and in the year 2018 itself, the husband moved for divorce. The parties are living separately from 2018 onwards,” the bench said, adding that the wife wants her husband and the three children their father.
The wife is living with her husband’s mother, which the court said, showed that there was no cruelty on her part against the husband even though counsel for the appellant submitted that “it is only a drama played by the respondent as she is also aware of the fact that their relationship is emotionally dead due to long separation”.
“Since no act of cruelties able to cause a reasonable apprehension in the mind of the appellant that it would be harmful or injurious for him to live with the respondent was proved by the appellant, he is not entitled to get a decree of divorce on the ground of matrimonial cruelties,” the court said, while upholding the family court’s order rejecting the divorce petition.