Food choices prove recipe for marital disaster: HC upholds couple divorce over onion, garlic row

A Gujarat-based couple’s 23-year-old marriage ended in a divorce over a long-standing dispute that started in kitchen and was centred around the wife’s dietary choice of non-consumption of onion and garlic.

The Gujarat High Court has upheld the divorce verdict of an Ahmedabad family court, capping the long-simmering conflict between the couple over consumption of two of the most common ingredients, onion and garlic.

A division Bench of Justices Sangeeta Vishen and Nisha Thakore dismissed the woman’s appeal challenging the dissolution of the marriage after she no longer opposed it, as per a HC order dated November 27.

The “trigger point” between the couple was the wife not consuming onion and garlic. The wife submitted in her appeal that the issue revolved around her following a particular religion (Swaminarayan sect).

Followers of this sect do not eat onion and garlic. Since the Ahmedabad-based couple got married in 2002, the husband’s mother used to cook food separately for the wife, without onion and garlic, while dishes for other family members were prepared with these two ingredients, as per the court order.

“Following the religion and consumption of onion and garlic was the trigger point of the differences between the parties,” it noted.

Though the petition in the HC was filed against the family court order of divorce during hearing, the wife did not object to the dissolution of the marriage.

“The wife was not contesting the dissolution of the marriage, but the concern is of the alimony granted by the learned Judge,” said the order.

The division Bench of Justices Vishen and Thakore upheld the family court’s divorce order.

Earlier, the husband had filed an application with the Mahila Police Station in Ahmedabad, stating “torture and harassment” by the appellant (wife). Eventually, the wife left her matrimonial home with their child in 2007 due to differences with her husband.

In 2013, the husband filed for divorce in the Ahmedabad family court on the grounds he had been “subjected to cruelty and the wife had deserted him”, as per the order.

The family court allowed the divorce in May 2024. During the HC hearing, the woman submitted that despite a direction by the family court maintenance has not been paid to her for 18 months, it added.

The wife’s counsel informed the court that the total outstanding maintenance was Rs 13,02,000, of which she had received Rs 2,72,000 as interim maintenance. The man had deposited Rs 4,27,000 earlier during the litigation.

The HC directed that this amount be transferred to the wife after verification and instructed the husband to deposit the remaining amount with the family court, which will transfer the funds to the woman’s bank account.