Man forcing wife to leave her job is cruelty, says MP HC; allows woman's divorce plea

A man forcing his wife to quit her job and live according to his wishes is cruelty, the Madhya Pradesh High Court said while allowing a woman's divorce plea. The 33-year-old woman works as a manager with a Central government undertaking.

She moved the HC after the Family Court dismissed her divorce plea, which claimed her husband was mentally harassing her to leave her job and live with him in Bhopal. In its order of November 13, a division bench of MP High Court comprising Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari overturned the family court's decision and allowed the woman's plea for divorce.

"Whether husband or wife wants to live together, it is their wish. Neither husband nor wife can force the other side not to do a job or do any job as per the choice of the spouse. In the present case, the husband compelled his wife to leave the government job till he gets a job. In this manner, forcing the wife to leave her job and live as per his wish and style amounts to cruelty," the bench said.


After getting married in 2014, the couple started preparing for government recruitment exams while staying in Bhopal, her lawyer Raghavendra Singh Raghuvanshi told PTI. "In 2017, my client got a job in a government undertaking but her husband did not. This hurt his ego. He then started harassing her to quit her job and stay with him in Bhopal. He told her not to take up any job until he finds one. However, she refused, which created differences among the couple," he said.