By Shivani Bhasin
The Supreme Court re-asserted the fundamental right to common sense by saying that daughters-in-law must be treated as family members and not housemaids in their marital households. The Supreme Court made these comments while upholding the seven year jail term of a man who was guilty of torturing his wife, who subsequently committed suicide. The apex court expressed grave concern over the issue of brides being burnt and tortured in the country. They noted that the respect a bride is accorded in her marital home “reflects the sensitivity of a civilized society”.
The bench, which comprised of justices KS. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra, said that “A daughter-in-law is to be treated as a member of the family with warmth and affection and not as a stranger with respectable and ignoble indifference. She should not be treated as a house maid. No impression should be given that she can be thrown out of her matrimonial home at any time”.
The court also adds that the mistreatment of married women was creating an “emotional numbness” in society, adding that, “It is a matter of grave concern and shame that brides are burned or otherwise their life-sparks are extinguished by torture, both physical and mental, because of demand of dowry and insatiable greed and sometimes, sans demand of dowry, because of cruelty and harassment meted out to the nascent brides, treating them with total insensitivity, destroying their desire to live and forcing them to commit suicide, a brutal self-humiliation of life”.
Image credit: Wedding walk in Jaipur by Christian Haugen via Flickr/CC by 2.0