Removal Of Mangalsutra By Wife Amounts To 'Mental Cruelty Of Highest Order': Madras High Court

The removal of Mangalsutra by petitioner's wife can be said to be an act reflecting mental cruelty of highest order as it could have caused agony and hurt sentiments of the respondent, the bench said.

Chennai: The removal of Mangalsutra (thali) by a wife would amount to subjecting the husband to "mental cruelty of the highest order", the Madras High Court observed as it granted divorce to a man. The court was hearing a petition moved by the husband who had urged to quash a family court order pronounced on June 15, 2016, refusing to accept his divorce request, news agency PTI reported.

The petition moved by C Sivakumar, who works as a professor in a medical college in Erode, came up for hearing before the bench of Justice VM Velumani and Justice S Sounthar on Wednesday.

During the hearing, the woman admitted that she had removed the 'mangalsutra', which is a chain with a sacred 'thali' (a locket usually made of gold) tied at the time of marriage to indicate the couple is now bound in matrimony). However, she told the court that she had only removed the chain and not the 'thali'.

Her counsel also argued that keeping the thali was not necessary under Section 7 of the Hindu Marriage Act.

To this, the bench pointed out that it is a matter of common knowledge that the tying of thali is an essential ritual in marriage ceremonies that takes place in this part of the world.

The court also cited the orders of a division bench of the High Court, which had said "from the materials available on record, it is also seen that the petitioner has removed the thali and it is also her own admission that she had kept the same in a bank locker. It was a known fact that no Hindu married woman would remove the thali at any point of time during the lifetime of her husband".

The bench had said: "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." 

Referring to these observations, the present bench continued: "We don't say for a moment that removal of thali chain per se is sufficient to put an end to the marital knot, but the said act of the respondent (wife) is a piece of evidence in drawing an inference about the intentions of the parties. The act of the respondent in removing the 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."

The bench also observed that the husband and wife had been living separately since 2011, and the wife did not make any attempt to reunite with the appellant.

"Hence in the facts and circumstances of the case and also in view of our finding that the wife by her act caused mental cruelty to the husband, we propose to put a full stop to the marital tie by granting a decree dissolving the marriage between the petitioner and the respondent (wife) that took place in November 2008," the bench said.

The court set aside the lower court order and granted divorce to the petitioner.

(With PTI)