CHENNAI: A wife pressurising her husband, an only son to his parents to move out of the family and set up a separate residence amounts to cruelty, the Madras high court has said.The relationship of a husband and wife is a reciprocal relationship and cannot be at the dictates of either of the spouse, the court added.A division bench of Justice P T Asha and Justice N Mala made the observation while dismissing an appeal moved by a wife challenging a family court order allowing a divorce petition moved by her husband.“As rightly pointed out by the family court, the husband, despite being the only son of his parents and owning an own house, at the instigation of the wife, set up a separate residence for them. However, the appellant continued to stay in her maternal home for months together for no valid reasons. The matrimonial bond has to be nurtured with compassion, mutual adjustment, and love,” the bench said.The frequent visits of the wife to her maternal house, leaving the husband, for no valid reasons, create a sense of insecurity in the husband’s mind and in our view, such frequent separation even, if temporary, for unjustifiable and invalid reasons, amounts to cruelty since the husband cannot be left with a fear that his wife may pick up a fight with him and leave him at the drop of a hat, the court added.“We are also of the view that the wife having married the husband knowing fully well that he was the only son of his parents and was he bound to take care of them in their old age, unjustifiably pressurised him to set up separate residence which amounts to cruelty,” the judges said.
