‘Subjecting wife to sexual perversion against her will amounts to cruelty’: Kerala High Court

The court noted that the husband had performed the sexual acts against her will and without consent.

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KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has held that subjecting a wife to sexual perversion against her will or without consent is an act of mental and physical cruelty and is a ground for divorce.

A division bench comprising Justice Amit Rawal and Justice C S Sudha issued the order on an appeal filed by a woman challenging the family court’s order dismissing her plea for divorce on the grounds of cruelty and desertion. Terming the family court’s reasoning to reject the plea “strange”, the court set its order aside and granted divorce.

She got married on August 23, 2009, and the couple cohabited for 17 days. According to the petitioner, during her brief period of cohabitation with her husband, he harassed her physically and mentally. She alleged her husband subjected her to sexual perversion and forced her to imitate scenes from pornographic movies.

When she refused to obey his directions, the husband assaulted her physically. He clicked her nude photographs on his mobile phone and bit her all over the face, besides wounding her lips, the woman said in the petition. The court noted that the husband had performed the sexual acts against her will and without consent.

“Perceptions of people differ on what act(s) constitute sexual perversion. What may be perversion to one, may not be perversion to another. When two consenting adults engage in coitus in the privacy of their bedroom, it is their choice as to how and in what manner they should act.

But if one party objects to the conduct or acts of the other on the ground that it is against the normal course of human conduct or normal sexual activity, and still he/she is compelled to do the same, then it can only be termed as cruelty both physical and mental. If the conduct and character of a party cause misery and agony to the other spouse, it would certainly be an act of cruelty to the spouse justifying the grant of divorce,” the HC said.

The bench said the family court had given a strange reasoning to reject the petitioner’s plea for divorce. According to the family court, it was improbable for the respondent to have committed the acts referred to by the petitioner as the couple had cohabited.