Raipur:
The Chhattisgarh High Court last month called for the eradication of “discrimination on the basis of skin color” as it upheld a family court order rejecting a man's divorce petition. The man had alleged 'cruelty', arguing that he had been abandoned by his wife, but the court ruled in favor of the woman, who said she had been insulted and thrown out of her home because her darker skin color.
The court then came down strongly on the man, who married in 2005, saying it could not give others “an incentive to promote a (colorist) mentality” through its ruling in the case.
“The human race needs to change the dialogue at home… which may not promote the fairness preference of the skin,” a bench of Justices Gautam Bhaduri and Justice Deepak Kumar Tiwari said.
The court also referred to studies into the role skin color plays in the selection of marriage partners and the long-running debate over 'fairness creams', which were the subject of a 2020 amendment to the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act that introduced a five-year prison sentence for advertisements promoting fair skin.
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“The research further indicates that dark-skinned women are rated lower than their counterparts, and that the majority of skin-lightening cosmetics are targeted at women. They are likely to portray a dark-skinned woman as lacking self-confidence and insecure.” capable of securing success in life,” the court noted.
“Therefore, the husband cannot be encouraged to promote such a mentality of society, preferring light skin to dark one…” the court ruled, adding: “…we are holding that there is no basis for cruelty, or desertion, committed by the husband in order to obtain the decree of divorce…”