New Delhi: Taking a strong stance against colourism, the Chhattisgarh High Court ruled that the choice of skin colour cannot be incentivised and that society as a whole must work to rid itself of skin tone bias.
“Entire society of the human race (sic) needs to change the dialogue at home, which may not promote the fairness preference of skin,” the court noted, while dismissing an appeal filed by a man challenging a family court order which rejected his divorce application. The man had in his application alleged desertion on the part of his wife.
In an order dated 22 November, the division bench of Justice Goutam Bhaduri and Deepak Kumar Tiwari noted that the wife was subjected to abuse owing to her dark skin and that the husband deserted her instead.
“Therefore, the incentive cannot be given to a husband to promote such mindset of the society for preference of light skin over dark,” read the order, written by Justice Goutam Bhaduri, in which he took exception to the mistreatment meted out to the wife owing to skin tone bias.
In the judgment, the court referred to a study on skin-colour preference to decide the suitability of a person as a potential partner to comment on the precarious condition of dark-skinned women and appealed to society at large to improve discourse on the issue.
“The study further indicates that the attractiveness and competency is controlled in a manner to minimise their influence, which attributes to the skin-colour variation,” the court noted, adding that “dark skinned (women) were rated lower than their highly competent light-skinned counterparts and the majority of skin-lightening cosmetics target women”.
“They are likely to portray a dark-skinned woman as an under confident and insecure person who is unable to secure success in life until someone suggests the use of a fairness cream,” it said, referring to stereotypes propagated by cosmetic brands about women with darker skin.
‘Abused for dark skin’
In his appeal challenging the family court’s decree pronounced on 30 July 2022, the man had alleged that his wife deserted him due to his financial condition and went to her paternal home within months of their wedding in 2005,.
He further alleged that she never joined his conjugal company from 2017 onwards despite his serious efforts.
He also said that after ‘deserting’ him, she filed an application under Section 125 of The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) seeking maintenance.
The wife, in turn, accused the husband of abusing and torturing her for her skin tone. Alleging that she was physically assaulted, even when she was pregnant, and was driven out of her matrimonial home, she also submitted that the husband deserted her because he wanted to remarry.
Upon evaluating the evidence and arguments of both parties, the high court held that the reasons furnished by the wife seemed more logical. It noted that she came up with her plea without hesitation that the husband wanted to desert her on the ground that she was dark-skinned.
The court dismissed the husband’s plea for divorce holding that no ground of cruelty or desertion was made by him to get the decree of divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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