Wife is not a chattel to be forced to live with her husband, says Supreme Court

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Tuesday, during the hearing of a case, said that a woman is not a chattel to be forced to live with her husband. The Supreme Court said this during a hearing when a man sought an order from the court to his spouse to start living with him again. Chattel means slave or a tangible piece of property.

During the hearing, the SC bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hemant Gupta asked the husband, “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?”

At the core of the dispute is an April 2019 order on restitution of conjugal rights, passed in favour of the man under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act passed by a family court at Gorakhpur.

The woman claimed that since marriage in 2013, she was tortured by her husband for dowry, compelling her to move out. In 2015, after she filed a case seeking maintenance, a Gorakhpur court asked the husband to pay her ₹20,000 a month. The husband filed his plea for restoration of conjugal rights in the family court after this.

Following the order of the Family Court of Gorakhpur, the husband moved the High Court and questioned the maintenance and allowance of the petition and asked why it is needed when he is willing to live with his wife. The Allahabad High Court dismissed the petition after which the man approached the Supreme Court.

In her defense, the woman argued that her husband’s entire game is to avoid paying alimony. The woman’s lawyer also told the court that the husband also went to the family court only when he got the order to give alimony to the wife.

The Supreme Court gave this comment on the demand of the husband to order the wife to stay together continuously and also rejected the petition of the husband in which he sought to restore his marital rights.