Madras High Court Rules "Removing Mangalsutra Mental Cruelty Of Greatest Kind" Towards Husband

NEW DELHI: The High Court of Madras ruled that removing Mangalsutra from a wife would amount to 'mental cruelty of greatest kind'.

As a result, the court agreed with the divorce of C. Sivakumar, a professor employed at the medical college of Erode. C. Sivakumar filed a case of divorce in the Madras High Court that was considered by a division of the bench with justices V M Velumani and S Sounthar and made the comment.

When the wife was interrogated she acknowledged that removing the mangalsutra at the time of separation. Despite she explained that she kept the thali of the chain and simply had removed the chain. The act of removing had its own significance.

The 'Mangalsutra' is basically a necklace of black and gold colour, with a gold or a diamond pendant in it. The importance of mangalsutra has a significant value in the Hindu marriage concept. It is tied by the husband of a wife around her neck during their wedding as part of the rituals. It acts as a symbol of marriage and the wife wears it until her husband's death.

The word can be referred as sacred thread or cord, where mangal stands for auspicious and sutra stands for thread or cord. Although it may appear to be like a jewellery item, the item looks much more gorgeous.

The concept of mangalsutra is said to have originated in Southern India, known as thali, thaaly or mangalyaan. The necklace looks like a yellow thread that's coated with turmeric paste paint and is tied around the bride's neck with a three-knot tie. With diverse colours, sizes, patterns and designs, the mangalsutra is worn by most women and it also acts as a symbol of love, faith, promise, and strong relationship and has religious implications understood and accepted by hardcore Hindus.

The attorney of the wife argued by citing that section 7 of the Hindu Marriage Act states tying the thali of the chain is not required and thus removing it by a wife would have no importance as well.

The division of the bench said, "Thali around a woman's neck was a precious object that symbolized the continuation of marital life and was removed only after the husband died. As a result, its removal by the petitioner/wife can be considered an act of mental cruelty of the highest degree, as it could have caused suffering and injured the respondent's feelings,".

The statements further added by the division- "We do not claim that the removal of the thali chain is sufficient to dissolve the marital knot, but the respondent's (wife's) action constitutes evidence in drawing an inference regarding the parties' intents. The respondent's removal of the thali chain at the time of separation, along with other evidence on record, leads us to the conclusion that the parties have no intention of reconciling and continuing the marital knot."

Adding on, the bench noted that the wife had fabricated charges of extramarital affairs against the boy with his female coworkers in front of the coworkers and the people and even in front of the police.

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