Pleadings for restitution of conjugal rights

A husband comes home from work in Airoli to find the flat empty: his wife has gone to her parents' house and will not return his calls. He does not want a divorce; he wants his wife back. A woman in the opposite position, pushed out of her in-laws' home, may also want the marriage to continue but on fair terms. Can a court order a spouse to live with the other? The law has an old remedy for exactly this, and it is one of the most carefully worded provisions in the Hindu Marriage Act. What does a petition for it have to plead?

In two minutes

A petition for restitution of conjugal rights asks the district (Family) Court to direct a spouse who has withdrawn from the society of the other, without reasonable excuse, to resume cohabitation; the petition must plead the marriage, the withdrawal, the absence of reasonable excuse and the absence of any legal ground for refusal.

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