Order telling wife to serve snacks to hubby quashed

CHENNAI:  A division bench of the Madras High Court has struck down the order of a single judge directing a separated wife to show hospitality to her estranged husband by serving him snacks. The judge was swayed by what should be the conduct of the parties towards each other, the bench said. 

“We find the learned single judge, while attempting to facilitate visitation, is swayed away by what should be the conduct of the parties towards each other, including serving of snacks/tea to the other side,” the bench of Justices Paresh Upadhyay and D Bharatha Chakravarthy said in its recent order. Such stipulations and many of the observations of the single judge are ‘less relevant’ for deciding the rights of the parties or to address the grievances of the parties, the bench said. 

Justice Krishnan Ramasamy in a July 2022 order had directed that when the husband visits the residence of his estranged wife to see their child, the wife shall show hospitality by providing snacks and dinner to him and consume them along with the child.

The judge also said the spouse must treat his/her other spouse as a guest since in our custom and practice a guest is treated as ‘Athidi Devo Bhava’. The matter pertains to dispute over visiting rights of a father to meet his child staying with his separated wife.

The marriage of the couple was solemnized in 2006, the child was born in 2010, and the couple got separated in 2017. The child has been with the mother since then. The woman planned to move from Chennai to Gurugram with her daughter since she got a job offer there. She filed an appeal against the single judge’s order and also sought permission of the court to move to Gurugram.

The division bench, while allowing the appeal, noted that conjoint consideration of the above circumstances would require that the mother and the daughter must stay in Gurugram, and it should not be permitted to be given the colour of defiance of any of the orders. 

While quashing the single judge’s order dated July 13, 2022, the bench said so far as the visitation rights of the father is concerned, he may explore the possibility of going to Gurugram, if he so wishes.