The Smriti texts and other religious treatises deals with a lot of prescriptive rules on the householder' lives and rituals.
A commonly pointed out situation is of discipline, crime and subsequent quantum of the punishment. In general, the husband must instil sense of discipline to the wife, progeny and other younger people in the house. Especially in case of women, there have been a lot of discussions on this site with several "controversial" QnA.
So, these generally deal with the head of family, who is husband and male, deciding on the punishment and crime (if committed). But, an average person is not infallible and as it may turn out, even the best of us can commit some crime or sin (in the eyes of treatises).
What happens in the scenario when the head of the family himself commits a crime or a wrong act? Considering, the crime is not of a state level to be involving a King itself, but rather, is related with daily homely based chores or lifestyle (similar to one, where a husband has a right to punish his kin), Who will punish him?
Can the wife punish him? Considering in the sapta - padí : the last, 7th vow is taken of as to be Friends, and as such friendship can only happen between two equals, thus don't the wife get the right to decide on the crime committed by the husband and adjudicate the requisite quantum of punishment (even though, if the deemed punishment might just be ceremonial or 'rituallly-symbolic' based)?
Are any of the treatises, found with any such injunctions on women taking the role of judge and executor too ? What's the general consensus of scriptures on such role swap or such a situation mentioned above?
