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"Are we really living in 21st century," asked people on Twitter, responding to Madras High Court absurd observation that removal of 'thali' – the word of mangalsutra in Tamil – would amount to subjecting the husband to "mental cruelty of the highest order," while granting divorce to a man.
The observation went viral on Twitter – with many questioning "what's wrong with our courts" and asserting that a woman's agency to choose what she wears cannot be equated with "cruelty."
A division bench of Justices V M Velumani and S Sounthar made the observation, while allowing a civil miscellaneous appeal from C Sivakumar, working as a professor in a medical college in Erode recently.
He sought to quash the orders dated from 2016 refusing divorce to him.
"Thali around the neck of a woman was a sacred thing which symbolises the continuance of married life and it is removed only after the death of the husband. Therefore, its removal by the petitioner/wife can be said to be an act which reflected mental cruelty of the highest order as it could have caused agony and hurt the sentiments of the respondent," the bench had said.
People took to the social media platform to call out the mosigynistic observation, with some even taking a dig saying how now divorce has been made easy for women.
Many others also pointed how it is commonplace for women to either remove their thali – or even not wear it at all.
(With inputs from PTI)
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