The Kerala High Court said that the younger generation thinks marriage is evil and that it could be avoided to “enjoy free life without any liabilities or obligations”, reported Bar and Bench on Thursday.

“They [the younger generation] would expand the word ‘WIFE’ as ‘Worry Invited For Ever’ substituting the old concept of ‘Wise Investment For Ever’,” the court said. “The consumer culture of ‘use and throw’ seems to have influenced our matrimonial relationships also. Live-in-relationships are on the rise, just to say good-bye when they fell apart.”

In its order passed on August 24, the court also said that the divorces in younger generations will lead to the society having a “stunted growth”.

“Kerala, known as God’s own Country, was once famous for its well knit family bondage,” the court said. But the present trend it seems to break the nuptial tie on flimsy or selfish reasons, or for extra-marital relationships, even unmindful of their children.”

A division bench of Justices Muhamed Mustaque and Sophy Thomas made the statements while hearing a man’s petition against a family court order that dismissed his divorce plea.

The man claimed that his wife developed behavioural problems and abused him physically and mentally. She also accused him of having an extra-marital affair, he added. The petitioner claimed that she did perform her “marital duties”.

The woman said that her husband was fabricating reasons to leave her and their three children so that he could pursue his extra-marital affair. She claimed that the husband’s mother and relatives were aware of the extra-marital affair.

The court said that the woman’s claims were true and that the petitioner’s mother was supporting him.

Turning down his petition, the court said that it cannot help an “erring person legalise his activities, which are per se illegal”, reported Live Law.

“When the wife had reasonable grounds to suspect the chastity or fidelity of her husband, and if she questions him, or expresses her deep pain and sorrow before him, it cannot be termed as a behavioural abnormality, as it is the natural human conduct of a normal wife,” the High Court said.

The quarrels and outbursts of emotions cannot be termed as cruelty warranting a divorce, it added.

“If the appellant is ready to come back to his wife and children, they are ready to accept him, there is nothing to show that the chances of an amicable reunion is foreclosed forever,” the High Court added.