Wife underwent treatment but couple had no children for 19 years; Madras HC rejects divorce plea over childlessness

In a recent judgement, the Madras High Court ruled that under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the inability of the wife to have a child cannot, by itself, be converted into a matrimonial fault of the wife and thus assume mental cruelty on the husband. The Madras High Court said that a marriage cannot be reduced to the sole object of procreation. A spouse cannot be treated as having failed in the matrimonial relationship merely because the parties did not have a child.

Before the Madras High Court, the wife admitted that there was no child born during the subsistence of their marriage and that she had undergone surgery in Chennai for an 8 cm fibroid growth in her uterus.