A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has decried what it calls the present trend of breaking the nuptial tie for flimsy or selfish reasons and observed that the consumer culture of ‘use and throw’ seems to have influenced matrimonial relationships.
The Bench comprising Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque and Justice Sophy Thomas, while dismissing recently an appeal filed by a man from Alappuzha against the dismissal of his divorce plea by a family court, observed that nowadays the younger generation thought that marriage was an evil that could be avoided to enjoy free life without any liabilities or obligations.
“They would expand the word ‘WIFE’ as Worry Invited For Ever, substituting the old concept of Wise Investment For Ever,” the court added. Live-in relationships were on the rise, just to say goodbye when they fall apart, the court observed.
An institution
The court further observed: “Kerala, known as God’s Own Country, was once famous for its well-knit family bondage. But the present trend seems to [be to] break the nuptial tie for flimsy or selfish reasons or extra-marital relationships, even unmindful of their children.” The law and religion both considered marriage as an institution by itself and parties to the marriage were not permitted to walk away from that relationship unilaterally, unless and until they satisfied the legal requirements to dissolve their marriage through a court of law or by the personal law which governed them.
The court pointed out that from time immemorial marriage was considered solemn, and sanctity attached to the relationship of a man and wife united in marriage was considered inseparable, and it was the very foundation of a strong society. Marriage was a socially or ritually recognised union, or legal contract between spouses, that established rights and obligations between them, between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws. The family was “the basic unit of society, from where we learn virtues, values, skills, and behaviour. Marriage is not a mere ritual or an empty ceremony for licensing the sexual urge of the parties”.
The court said that mere quarrels, ordinary wear and tear of matrimonial relationships, or casual outbursts of some emotional feelings cannot be treated as cruelties warranting a divorce.
