Spouses should share household responsibilities equally: Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court has observed that in modern society, husband and wife should bear the burden of household responsibilities equally.

The observation came on September 6 as the court dismissed an appeal filed by a man seeking the dissolution of his marriage because his wife was “always on the phone with her mother and did not do housework”.

The division Bench of Justices Nitin Sambre and Sharmila Deshmukh held that the 35-year-old man could not establish his claim of “cruelty” against his estranged wife.

The man had challenged a March 2018 order of a family court dismissing his plea seeking divorce. The couple had got married in 2010.

The woman claimed in her argument that she was forced to do all the housework after returning from office and faced abuse when she contacted her family.

She also claimed that her estranged husband had physically abused her on several occasions.

“Regressive mindset”

The Bench, in its order, noted that both the man and woman were employed, and expecting the wife to do all the household work reflects a regressive mindset.

“In modern society, the burden of household responsibilities has to be borne by both husband and wife equally. The primitive mindset expecting the woman of the house to solely shoulder the household responsibilities needs to undergo a positive change,” the HC said.

The marital relationship must not lead to the wife in this case getting isolated from her parents, and she cannot be expected to sever the ties with her parents, the court noted.

“Being in contact with one’s parents cannot by any stretch of imagination be construed as inflicting mental agony on the other party. In our view, putting restrictions on the respondent to curtail her contact with her parents has, in fact, subjected the wife to mental cruelty apart from physical cruelty,” the Bench said.