Supreme Court forces husband to divorce his cheating wife against his will
Date 18 September 2015
Sec 13(1) of Hindu Marriage Act 1955 confers right on an aggrieved spouse to seek divorce in case of infidelity by other spouse after marriage. However, Supreme Court of India has its own interpretation and believes this is an obligation of aggrieved spouse to accommodate his wandering spouse.In an apparent show of solidarity with wandering spouse, supreme court has ratified Patna High court order which forced out a husband from his legal marriage in order to accommodate his cheating wife who had done second marriage illegally and had also begotten an illegitimate child from second marriage; all during the subsistence of first marriage.
By ordering dismissal of special leave petition filed by aggrieved husband, Supreme Court bench of Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice C Nagappan has rendered both sec 23(1)(a) as well as Sec 13 (1) of Hindu Marriage Act 1955 completely redundant. Sec 23(1)(a) of Hindu Marriage Act casts mandate on Court to ensure before granting relief of divorce to a Hindu spouse that he or she is not taking advantage of his or her own wrongs.
In this case appellant husband has approached Patna High Court against decree of divorce granted by Family Court , Patna to petitioner wife who alleged cruelty and desertion by husband. Appellant husband has opposed this plea of divorce and contended that the truth is other way round .In reality he is the victim of cruelty and desertion at the hands of his wife . As per husband , it was wife who had left the matrimonial home voluntarily in his absence with ulterior motives . Long before filing the divorce petition on December 1, 2009, wife had already married her paramour in April 2008 and had also begotten an illegitimate daughter from said paramour on June 2, 2009 and had kept the court in dark.
Allegations of cruelty by wife was just a ploy to create ground for divorce and nothing else while this divorce petition is a disguise to seek backdoor legitimacy for her illegal marriage .
To substantiate his claim Appellant husband has produced copy of wife’s passport No. G 9351478 dated 07 July 2008 issued by Regional Passport Office Patna along with birth certificate No- 17723 dated 27 June 2009 issued by Patna Municipal Corporation to illegitimate daughter of the wife. Spouse name in wife’s passport and child’s father’s name in birth certificate was that of wife’s paramour and not of appellant husband .
However, Patna High Court bench of Justice V N Sinha and Justice Nilu Agrawal refused to term these acts of wife as cruelty and upheld lower court’s decision on grant of divorce to wife.
This decision of High court was challenged before Supreme Court on the ground that High Court decision is in direct violation of Sec 23(1)(a) of Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, however Supreme Court has dismissed the Special Leave Petition without assigning any reason. Today’s order of supreme court has set a very bad precedent in law and is a big setback for stability of a sacred institution called marriage and is in direct contravention of Hindu Marriage Act 1955. Coming out of a binding legal hindu marriage has become a cakewalk now by virtue of this order.
