Bengaluru, March 20 -- Can watching porn and masturbation be 'cruelty' in marriage? The Madras high court says no.

Underscoring a woman's sexual autonomy and that the fundamental right to privacy includes spousal privacy, the Madras high court on Wednesday rejected a man's petition seeking divorce from his wife on the ground that she watched pornography and often masturbated.

Justices GR Swaminathan and R Poornima of the Madurai bench held that if a spouse did not breach any statutory laws in watching pornography and if such habit did not have an adverse impact on the discharge of one's conjugal obligations, such acts cannot be amount to cruelty and therefore, cannot be a ground for divorce.

It further said that watching pornography in...