There is no provision in Indian Law by which a wife can refuse to live with her in-laws and force her husband to live separately from her in-laws, and this amounts to cruelty under Section 13(1) (ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, and also other religion Laws.
According
to the Supreme Court decision, the wife is expected to live with her husband’s relatives,
follow their household rules and customs, and ideally assimilate seamlessly
like a new daughter, and the Court granted divorce to a man on the basis of “Cruelty”
when his wife refused to share the house with her in-laws.
In
the case of Narendra Versus K.Meena (2016) 9 SCC 455, it has been observed by
the Supreme Court that asking a son to separate from his family amounts to cruelty,
and it was held that after marriage a woman becomes a part of the husband’s
family and as such she cannot seek to separate her husband from his aged parents
for insignificant reasons like she wants to enjoy her husband’s income all
alone.
The
Court further said that the insistence on asking the husband to live separately
from his parents is not an Indian Concept but a Western idea and is alien to
our culture and ethos, and further said that a son can legally divorce his wife
for the cruelty in case she try to separate him away from his “Pious Religious
Obligation” to physically live with his aged parents and provide them care and
shelter.
Similarly,
the Chhattisgarh High Court in the matter of Prabir Kumar Das Versus Papiya
Das, held that wife forcing the husband to get separated from his family which
includes his old aged ailing parents tantamount to Cruelty under the Section
13(1) (ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act.
In this case, the husband has prated to the Court for divorce after alleging that his wife is misbehaving with him and his family members soon after the marriage and is not willing to live with him, and further alleged that during his absence in the house, his wife tried to assault/slap his mother by using obscene language, and she demands to live with the husband only in one case when he separate from his parents.
In
this matter, the husband prayed for divorce after alleging that soon after
marriage , his wife started to pressuring him to live separately and to sell
his husbands parental house , and when he tries to convince his wife that he
has a private job and it is not easy for him to quit the job , then his wife
became doggedness on the demand to sell his parental house , and not only this
, his wife is also threatening to kill herself or to drown herself in Ganga or
to take any other suicidal steps , and she also started misbehaving ,and even
physically torturing the old and infirm mother-in-law ,and finally after a few
days she left her matrimonial home after taking all the ornaments with her .
Similarly,
the Bombay High Court in a case held that , If a married woman is asked to do
household work certainly for the purpose of family , then it cannot be said
that it is like a maid , and if she had no desire to do household chores then
she should have told this before the marriage , so that the bride-groom can
rethink about the marriage itself.
However,
the Supreme Court in the matter of Guraib Singh Versus State of Punjab held that,
A daughter-in-law is to be treated as a member of the family with warmth and
affection and not as a stranger with unrespectable and ignoble indifference. She
should not be treated as a housemaid. No impression should be given that she
can be thrown out of her matrimonial home at any time. The manner in which
sometimes the bride is treated in many a home by the husband, in-laws and
relatives creates a feeling of emotional numbness in society.
Marriage
is not only a sacred relationship between husband and wife, but it also binds
the family members of both in the bond of cordial relations; hence seeking
separation from in-laws on trivial grounds is not sustainable.
Hence, it is clear that a wife cannot refuse to live with her in-laws under the condition of living separately from the family.
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