New Delhi, Aug. 26 -- The Delhi High Court has held that a husband cannot justify violence against his wife on the ground of anger or refusal to live with him, stressing that such a claim reflects "patriarchal entitlement" which the law cannot support.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, while rejecting the bail plea of the husband, observed that accepting such arguments would amount to legitimising regressive notions that reduce women to subservience.

"Assertion of the wife to not be subjected to domestic violence cannot justify violence by a husband. To accept the plea of anger at the spur of the moment would amount to legitimising patriarchal entitlement, which is contrary to the intent of law," the court said.

The remarks came during the...