Jharkhand High Court: Women Obligated to Serve Elderly In-Laws, Living Separately Unreasonable

The Jharkhand High Court has observed that serving elderly mothers-in-law or grandmothers-in-law is both a cultural practice and an obligation for women in India. The Court also underscored that the wife’s insistence to live separately from such in-laws is unreasonable.”It is the culture in India to serve the old aged mother-in-law or grandmother-in-law as the case may by the wife in order

The Jharkhand High Court has observed that women in India are obligated to serve their elderly mothers-in-law or grandmothers-in-law. The court also quoted some lines from the ‘Manusmriti’ and termed serving the elderly in-laws a ‘cultural practice’.

Dealing with a plea challenging an order passed by a Family Court wherein a man was asked to pay maintenance of Rs 30,000 per month to his wife, and Rs 15,000 per month to his minor son, the court also underscored that the wife’s insistence to live separately from her in-laws is unreasonable.