Patna HC: Calling Wife "Bhoot", "Pishach" Not Cruelty In Failed Marriages

In a demeaning statement, Patna High Court said that calling wife "bhoot" (ghost), and "pisach (vampire)" doesn't amount to cruelty. The court was hearing a petition filed by Sahdeo Gupta and his son Naresh Kumar Gupta who challenged an order passed by Bihar's Nalanda court that imprisoned the duo for a year. As per the reports, Naresh Gupta's wife has filed a complaint in 1994 in Nawada court. She alleged that her husband and father-in-law subjected her to physical and material torture to press the demand of a car in dowry. 

Upon the request of father-son duo, the case was transferred to Nalanda. However, the Chief Judicial Magistrate sentenced father-son duo to an imprisonment of one year. Moreover, their appeal at the Additional Sessions Court was quashed 10 years ago. 

In the meantime, the Jharkhand High Court granted divorce to the couple. 

The wife's lawyer questioned the filthy language

But now, the father-son duo has approached Patna High Court to challenge the order of Nalanda court. However, the divorced woman's lawyer said "a lady, in the 21st century" was called "bhoot" and "pishach" by her in-laws, which was "a form of immense cruelty". 

But the single-judge bench of Justice Bibek Chaudhuri refused to accept this argument. The judge said, "In matrimonial relations, especially in failed matrimonial relations", there have been instances of "both the husband and the wife" having "abused each other" with "filthy language".

"However, all such accusations do not come within the veil of cruelty," it said. The court noted that the wife was brutally tortured and harassed by the accused persons. However, it denied recording the accusations saying "no specific, distinct allegations against either petitioner".

Why the judgement is disturbing? 

The judgement is very disturbing. It casually normalised verbal abuse of women in matrimonial disputes. Physical abuse is considered by people as it leaves marks on the body. However emotional abuse or mental abuse is not accepted as unlawful because the wounds are not visible. And verbal abuse causes these invisible wounds. 

However, the court and people need to be reminded that harming a woman's mental health is now a cruelty under the new criminal law amendment. The government of India has added two new sections to the crime against women in the new criminal bill Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. 

Moreover, name-calling is considered wrong when an unknown person does it. Then how does it become right when husbands do it? Because husbands have rights over women? Because women are properties of their husbands? 

Let's understand that name-calling or verbal abuse is wrong and insulting no matter who is responsible for it. Yes, sometimes name-callings are ignored as a joke. But the difference is that in such cases, the targeted person doesn't feel abused. In this case, it is clear that the wife was disturbed. Of course disputes in marriage happen but even then one cannot cross the line of undermining the other's self-respect. 

Views expressed are the author's own