New Delhi, May 13 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a woman's refusal to sacrifice her professional career and relocate with her husband cannot amount to cruelty or desertion warranting divorce, delivering a strong rebuke to what it described as "archaic", "ultraconservative" and "feudalistic" notions of marriage.

Setting aside adverse findings recorded by the Gujarat family court and affirmed by the Gujarat High Court against a woman dentist, a bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta underlined that marriage does not extinguish a woman's autonomy or individuality.

"A well-educated and professionally qualified woman cannot be expected to be confined within the rigid boundaries of matrimonial obligations alone. Marriage ...