In Brief
A qualified dentist and an Army officer married in 2009. She moved to Kargil to support his posting but later relocated to Ahmedabad to secure better healthcare for their daughter with a seizure disorder and to pursue her dental practice. The husband sought divorce on grounds of cruelty and desertion. The Supreme Court upheld the divorce but expunged the fault findings. It held that a woman's professional identity and a child's welfare are legitimate reasons for separate residence, and cannot constitute cruelty or desertion. The Court rejected patriarchal reasoning that wives must sacrifice careers to follow husbands, emphasizing women's constitutional rights to dignity and autonomy in modern society.
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