Man cannot force wife to stay together, establish conjugal rights: Gujarat High Court

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• Dec 30, 2021 | moderator

Digital Desk: In a landmark judgment upholding women’s rights, the Gujarat High Court while making an observation said that a man cannot force his wife to cohabit and establish conjugal rights. The high court further said that if the wife refuses to cohabit, the man can’t force her to do so even by a court order.

The observation was made during a case hearing of a couple from Banaskantha.

The couple married in 2015 and had a son. The woman was a nurse by profession, who left her husband’s house and went to live with her parents, as per a report in TOI.

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The woman in her complaint said that she faced harassment from her husband and was under pressure from in-laws to migrate to Australia and later call her husband here.

A dispute broke out between the couple, following which the woman’s husband approached a family court in Palanpur and sought reparation of conjugal rights. Acting on the suit, the court ordered his wife to live with her husband.

The woman then challenged the ruling in Gujarat High Court, which then quashed the family court’s order. A bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Nirala Mehta cited that a “marriage between Muslims is a civil contract and a case demanding restitution of conjugal rights is nothing but an enforcement of the right to consortium under this contract”.

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The court while making the judgment, enumerated order XXI Rule 32(1) of Civil Procedure Code saying, “No person can force a female or his wife to cohabit and establish conjugal rights. If the wife refuses to cohabit, then she cannot be forced by an order of the court.”