PUTTING ON WEIGHT NOT GROUND FOR DIVORCE?

Bombay High Court has reject a husband’s plea for dissolving marriage by saying his wife gaining weight and had put on excess flab after marriage. The excuse cannot be a ground for granting divorce, the court said. 

One of the grounds for seeking divorce was that the wife had concealed from her husband that she had undergone a breast surgery before marriage as a result of which she gained weight later. 

The husband had complained that because of ‘ailment’ suffered by her, he could not enjoy the pleasures of matrimonial life. 

• In the petition, the husband alleged that after the marriage, his wife started putting on weight. He contended that though he tried to persuade her to take medical treatment, she declined to cooperate. 
• He submitted that his wife always declined to do household work and that he was required to do the said work. He also alleged that she never fulfilled his expectations and that she never performed her duties as a wife.
• He said that he and his wife did not enjoy healthy sexual relations. 
• However, the court noted that the husband had admitted that the marriage was consummated. His grievance was therefore only about his wife being overweight and this could not be a ground for seeking divorce, said a bench of justices M.S. Sonak and A.S. Oka. 

The court also noted that the allegation of the husband that the respondent was of quarrelsome nature and that she was adamant, constitute the normal wear and tear of marriage and by itself was no ground for divorce. After marriage, the couple stayed in Pune. 
As they could not get along well, the husband applied for divorce in a family court in Pune which rejected his plea. He later moved the Bombay High Court which dismissed his appeal, saying that gaining weight cannot be a

ground for granting divorce.

Source: Agency