‘Patriarchal, condescending': Calcutta high court raps trial court judge
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Calcutta HC has in a recent order sharply criticised a trial court judge for his choice of words in matrimonial disputes, describing these as "patriarchal and condescending to women".
It also rapped the judge for "copy-pasting" the order from his earlier judgments and warned if such instances were repeated, it would impact his service record.
On May 22, HC granted divorce to a man on grounds of cruelty, overturning a 2018 order by the additional district judge, first court, at Sealdah. What irked HC was the trial court judge's order rejecting the husband's divorce plea and formulating "auspicious principles" for a successful marriage.
HC: Just stopping short of making adverse comment
The husband had filed a divorce plea in the trial court in 2015 alleging that his wife had not visited her matrimonial home since 2012, was refusing to cohabit and meet her marital obligations since 2014, and threatening to initiate criminal complaints against him. While the wife refuted the claims, the HC noted that no evidence was attached. While allowing the divorce suit, the HC noted that the wife had even skipped mediation as suggested by the HC in 2023.
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The judge's four-point formula for a successful marriage included "transcendental efforts to keep a perfect relation based on austerity of the spouse for achieving purity of the relation", "paying honour to our traditional belief", "sincere interest in cultivating fidelity", and "unmotivated and uninterrupted urge to completely satisfy each other".
The HC division bench of Justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Uday Kumar said in its order: "The entire mindset of the learned trial judge appears to spring from a patriarchal and condescending approach, thereby attributing a condescending role to the husband, to advise his wife properly, and also to condone cruel acts of the wife by trying to 'bridge the gap' between the parties. Such observations have nothing to do with the law on the subject.
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The high court judges said they were "just stopping short" of making any adverse comment against the trial judge because that could affect his career.
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