Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee in Chalte Chalte, where the couple splits after the husband resists favours from his wife’s family

Calcutta, June 19: Calcutta High Court today granted bail to a man who had been accused of cruelty by his wife because he refused to stay as a “ghar jamai”.

The term — jamai means son-in-law — is used to refer to a person who stays in his wife’s parent’s home (ghar).

The ruling comes days before Jamai Shasthi, when men are invited by in-laws who wish them prosperity.

Swapan Sadhukhan, 32, a resident of Gobordanga in North 24-Parganas, had been living in his in-laws’ home, at Debalay village in Deganga, for six months.

When he told his wife Dipali that he didn’t want to stay there anymore, she wouldn’t listen and told him that he should make this his permanent home.

On December 11 last year, Swapan returned to Gobordanga to live with his parents.

“Dipali did not come along and repeatedly requested him to return to Debalay. But my client, a casual employee in Metro Railway, did not want to be a ghar jamai and turned down his wife’s proposal,” Swapan’s counsel Aparna Samanta said.

Dipali then lodged a “false case” against her husband at Deganga police station, the lawyer said. “She alleged that soon after her marriage, her in-laws took away all the jewellery her parents had gifted her. She also claimed that she had been subjected to regular torture by her in-laws and husband,” Samanta said.