A judge in India said a man divorced his wife because he cooked instant noodles for him every day.
The chief judge of the district and hearings, ML Raghunath, related the incident on May 27 during a press conference in a court in Malavadi, Vijayanagar in Mysuru, a city in the southwestern region of India, according to The New Indian Express.
Raghunath told the outlet that he was a district judge in Ballari when he attended what he called the “Maggi case”. He gave no information on the date of the case or the names of the couple involved. Insider was unable to independently verify the matter.
The man said his wife would buy packs of Maggi noodles, a brand of instant noodles, and serve them for breakfast, lunch and dinner during their marriage, Raghunath said at the news conference, according to the news channel.
The couple eventually divorced by mutual consent, the judge said. According to India’s Special Marriage Act, 1954, divorce by mutual consent requires both parties to live separately for one year and agree to dissolve the marriage.
In a 2018 study by the International Journal of Management, Technology, and Social Sciences, India recorded a divorce rate of 11%. In the same study, the US recorded a 50% divorce rate.
But while the divorce rate in India is low, Raghunath said more married couples have been trying to call it quits in recent years.
“The divorce rate has increased dramatically over the years,” Raghunath said at the press conference, according to The New Indian Express. “Couples must be together for at least a year before filing for divorce. If there were no such law, divorce applications would be filed directly from wedding halls.”
The judge added that divorces are more common in urban areas than in rural villages.
“In rural areas, village panchayats intervene and solve the problems. Women do not have independence and their fear of society and family feelings force them to deal with the situation. But in cities, women are educated and financially independent,” he said in the press. conference, according to the outlet
Shubhada Maitra, a professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, told The Hindustan Times in 2021 that increased expectations are one of the reasons for the increase in divorce cases in India. Women in India are becoming more career-oriented, but many men still expect their wives to fill traditional roles, Maitra said.
“So women bear the double burden of working as an earning member of the family while also taking care of the household chores,” Maitra told the outlet.
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