Don't Leave Husband's Company Without Our Permission, SC Bench Tells A Wife [Read Order]

Respondent/Rajpal is directed to go with the petitioner/Harjinder Singh today from the court, the bench said.

A Supreme Court Bench of Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Deepak Gupta, in an unusual order in a pending appeal, has directed a woman to live with her husband for a few weeks and not to leave him without getting permission from it.

The bench was considering an appeal filed by husband against the Punjab and Haryana High Court order that refused to grant him divorce.

After interacting with the parties, during the course of hearing, the bench said: “We find that everything is still not lost. The petitioner/Harjinder Singh has been very gracious and fair in his submissions. The respondent wife has not instituted any case except one case for maintenance.”

The bench then observed that the parties should be given a chance to live together for a few weeks, keeping the case pending before it.

The interesting part of the order is when the court directed as follows: “Respondent/Rajpal is directed to go with the petitioner/Harjinder Singh today from the Court. The respondent is directed to behave herself properly and look after the petitioner and his aged mother. Nobody from the family of the respondent shall interfere with their peaceful living. Without permission from the Court respondent/Rajpal shall not leave the company of the petitioner/Harjinder Singh.”

Harjinder Singh had sought divorce on grounds of cruelty and desertion. The family court had turned down his plea and his appeal before high court also did not bear any fruit. In its judgment refusing divorce, the high court had observed: “The institution of marriage in our society has been considered to be a scared sanskar and insistence is always required to be made for its continuance and not its dissolution unless no other option is left.”