Chennai: A wife pressuring her husband, who is an only son to his parents, to move out of the family and set up a separate home amounts to cruelty, Madras high court has said. The relationship of a husband and wife is a reciprocal relationship and cannot be at the dictates of either spouse, the court added.A division bench of justices P T Asha and N Mala made the observation on Thursday while dismissing an appeal moved by a woman challenging a family court order allowing a divorce petition moved by her husband.“The husband, despite being the only son of his parents and owning a house, at the instigation of the wife, set up a separate home for them. But 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.Such frequent visits of the wife to her maternal house, 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 bound to take care of them in their old age, unjustifiably pressured him to set up a separate residence which amounts to cruelty,” the judges said.
