The Supreme Court recently stated that a woman is not property and cannot be forced to live with her husband. This observation was made while hearing a plea from a man who requested an order to compel his wife to return and live with him.
“What do you think? Is a woman a chattel that we can pass such an order? Is a wife a chattel that she can be directed to go with you?” asked the Supreme Court bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hemant Gupta during the hearing.
The petitioner, a resident of Gorakhpur, approached the Supreme Court to restore his conjugal rights based on a Family Court order. The couple married in 2013, but the wife left her matrimonial home after allegedly facing torture and harassment from her in-laws. In 2015, she approached the Gorakhpur Family Court, seeking Rs 20,000 per month as maintenance from her husband.
In response, the husband filed a plea to restore his conjugal rights. After both pleas were accepted by the court, the husband argued that he should not be required to pay maintenance since his wife refused to live with him. However, the Allahabad High Court rejected his argument, prompting him to appeal to the Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected the husband’s plea, emphasizing that he was treating his wife as if she could be ordered to live with him against her will, like property. The bench denied the husband’s request for enforcement of conjugal rights, pointing out that his appeal to the top court was based on the dismissal of his petition by the Allahabad High Court, which upheld the maintenance order.
