Delhi High Court: Forcing Wife To Do Household Chores Is Cruel

The Delhi High Court stated on Tuesday that forcing a wife to do household chores when her health does not permit it is cruel. When a wife does such acts of her own, she does them out of affection and love for her family.

In our opinion, when a wife indulges herself to do household chores, she does it by affection and love for her family… if her health or other circumstances do not permit her, forcefully asking her to do household chores would certainly be cruelty,

Atated a bench consisting of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Neena Bansal Krishna during a divorce trial.

The high court observed that there was no cruelty committed by the man in the case because he did not force the lady into doing the household chores, even as it established these broad general rules. It was mentioned that instead, he made sure there was home help to take care of household chores.

However, the high court stated that the case’s facts indicated the lady was at fault because she had filed criminal complaints against her husband and his family members in addition to making false claims about him having extramarital affairs. Eventually, the man’s appeal was accepted by the court, and he was given a divorce.

In his high court appeal, the husband claimed that his wife’s disrespect for him and his family was the reason for the strain in their marriage from the beginning. He also said that she did not help out with daily household work or make financial contributions to cover costs.

The court stated that

such allegations that assassinate the spouse’s character amount to the highest cruelty, which shall shake the foundation of marriage. In the present case, the respondent, by leveling allegations of extramarital affair, has committed immense cruelty on him.”