Wife-beating isn't normal: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday deprecated a lower court judgement for suggesting that wife-beating was a normal facet of married life and expressed anguish over the insensitivity shown by the judge to the plight of the woman who was forced to commit suicide following ill-treatment, cruelty and dowry harassment.

"...we are wary of passing comments against the subordinate courts because such comments tend to demoralise them. But, in this case, we will be failing in our duty if we ignore the insensitivity shown by learned Sessions Judge to a serious crime committed against a hapless woman," Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai said.

The bench noted that the lower court seemed to suggest that one or two slaps were fine. "The tenor of the judgment suggests that wife-beating is a normal facet of married life. Does that mean giving one or two slaps to a wife by a husband just does not matter? We do not think that that can be the right approach," the apex court said.