Wife not appendage of husband, retains individual identity and aspirations: Delhi HC

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Delhi High Court has said. Justice Najmi Waziri, while dealing with a petition by a landlord challenging the dismissal of his plea by a lower court for eviction of his tenant, also said it cannot be assumed that the wife is subservient to her husband and is obliged to disclose to or share with her husband details of all her finances. «A wife is neither an appendage of nor an adjunct to her husband.

Her identity does not merge with or get subsumed in her husband's identity. In law, she retains her individual entity. She retains her natural right to pursue her dreams, aspirations and the desire and need to be financially independent or otherwise do some meaningful social work,» observed the court in a judgement on July 7.

«There cannot be an assumption that the wife is subservient to her husband and is obliged to disclose to or share with her husband details of all her financials,» Justice Waziri said. The petitioner landlord had sought eviction of the tenant from his shop in Sadar Bazar on the ground that his two married daughters were unemployed and wished to utilise the property for their commercial aspirations. The eviction petition was dismissed by the lower court on several grounds including that the landlord's wife ran a hotel and he not disclose aspects of this business, and that the daughters were well settled in their matrimonial life and had never worked before.