The Bombay High Court rules that a wife’s refusal to carry out daily household chores does not automatically amount to “mental cruelty” and cannot be used to justify divorce. In separate reports, the court held that marriage is an equal partnership rather than a service arrangement in which a wife is “deemed a maid.” The bench, comprising Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande, found the husband’s allegations about chores to be trivial and rooted in disagreements typical in early marital life. The court also emphasized that for “mental cruelty” to be established, the conduct must be serious rather than minor or routine domestic disputes. In one account, the court overturns a lower court’s divorce order and directs the husband to pay Rs 20,000 per month as maintenance, treating the case as involving insufficient grounds for divorce. Overall, the decision focuses on the threshold for legal cruelty and rejects the idea that incomplete or refused household work alone meets that standard.