New Delhi: The Allahabad High Court has recently observed that if a wife declines to cohabit with her husband and forces him to live in a separate room, her actions will amount to ‘cruelty.’

The court said in its observation that by forcing him to live in a separate room, the wife ‘deprives’ the husband of his conjugal rights, reported Bar and Bench.

The observation was made by a Division Bench of Justices Ranjan Roy and Subhash Vidyarthi while granting divorce to a man who said that his wife forced him to live in a separate room and also threatened him with suicide and criminal cases if he entered in his room.

“Cohabitation is an essential part of a matrimonial relationship and if the wife declines to cohabit with the husband by forcing him to live in a separate room, she deprives him of his conjugal rights, which will have an adverse impact on his mental and physical well being and which will amount to both physical and mental cruelty. The plaintiff’s allegation of being wrongfully deprived of his conjugal rights has not been controverted by the defendant-respondent and the same has been admitted by implication,” the court observed, reported Bar and Bench.

In its judgment, the court said that there was sufficient evidence to prove grounds of cruelty for the grant of divorce.

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