Today almost all media houses reported a strange ruling by Madras High Court in a divorce case. According to the reports, the High Court said that removal of Mangalsutra by wife is mental cruelty of the highest order for a husband. However, this claim is completely wrong, and while the court had mentioned the matter of removal of mangalsutra, the court didn’t say that it constitutes mental cruelty.
Several media houses, including NDTV, Indian Express, India TV, Business Today, ABP News, Jagaran etc had published the story with almost identical headlines, which claimed that the Madras High Court has ruled that the removal of Thali or Mangalsutra by wife is mental cruelty of highest order. While most of the media houses published the same PTI story, others were by individual media houses.
The reports said that a division bench of Justices VM Velumani and S Sounthar granted bail to a man while making the said observation. The PTI report carried by several media houses quoted the court as saying, “Thali around the neck of a woman was a sacred thing which symbolises the continuance of married life and it is removed only after the death of the husband. Therefore, its removal by the petitioner/wife can be said to be an act which reflected mental cruelty of the highest order as it could have caused agony and hurt the sentiments of the respondent.”
However, the report mentions that it is a quote from a difference division bench made in a difference case in 2017. The court in the current case had merely quoted the earlier judgement, as is the practice, and the High Court has not made the same observations in the current case. But the headlines used in the case does not mention this, and suggest that the comments on Mangalsutra were made in the current case only.
In fact, in the current case, some of the other acts of the wife has been identified as mental cruelty on the husband by the court. The High Court order says that the wife had suspected the character of her husband, and used to visit his workplace and create scenes there using filthy language and alleging relations with his female colleagues. The woman in her pleadings had also alleged that her husband was having illegal intimacy with other working women.
However, the woman could not name any woman who was in alleged illegal relation with her husband. Moreover, it was established that the woman had visited the medical college where her husband is a professor, and had scolded him using filthy language making the allegations in front of staff and students. The court terms this behaviour as mental cruelty by her on her husband.
“Certainly this act of the respondent would amount to mental cruelty within the meaning of Section 13(1)(ia) of Hindu Marriage Act as explained by the Apex Court in the case law,” the court said.
On the removal of the Thali Chain or the Mangalsutra by the woman, the court observed that while it is treated as an unceremonious act, it can’t be the basis of divorce. “We don’t say for a moment that removal of thali chain per se sufficient to put an end to the marital knot,” the High Court bench said.
However, the court added that is one of the pieces of evidence pointing out the intention of the woman, saying that the act of “removal of thali chain at the time of separation coupled with various other evidences available on record, compel us to come to a definite conclusion that the parties have no intention to reconcile and continue the marital knot”.
While making this observation, the court had cited an earlier verdict of a division bench of the same court in a similar case, where the bench had said that removal of Thali Chain or mangalsutra by a wife can be termed as Mental Cruelty of highest order.
The Madras High Court had made comments in a judgement passed in November 2016, where the court had said, “From the materials available on record, it is also seen that the petitioner has removed the “thali” (Mangalsutra) and it is also her own admission that she has kept the same in Bank locker. It is known fact that no Hindu married woman would remove the “thali” at any point of time during the lifetime of her husband. “Thali” around the neck of a wife is a sacred thing which symbolises the continuance of married life and it is removed only after the death of husband. Therefore, the removal of “thali” by the petitioner / wife can be said to be an act which reflected mental cruelty of highest order as it could have caused agony and hurted the sentiments of the respondent.”
Therefore, it makes it clear that the Madras High Court has not made the comments in the current case, but it was made six years ago by a different bench of the same court. Moreover, in the current case, the High Court has said that making baseless allegations of infidelity against husband and creating disturbances at his workplace on the allegation constitutes mental cruelty.
While the mainstream media houses picked the wrong comment of the High Court for headlines, legal news portals like Livelaw and Bar and Bench had used the correct angle while reporting the judgement.
