No proof of wife’s ‘affair’,HC denies man divorce

The husband’s case was that they got married on June 24,1991,and had a daughter a year later. However,his wife told him later that she had an affair with someone before marriage and she was pressured into marrying him by her family. He claimed she never cooked and that she disappeared from home for eight months without telling him. He went on to add that she met her boyfriend under the pretext of attending a beautician-training course,brought her friends home and took them into his bedroom in his presence. On September 14,2004,the family court had dismissed his petition for divorce.

The wife denied all the allegations made by the husband and said that “after the birth of their daughter the appellant (husband) as well as other family members started ill-treating her merely because she gave birth to a girl child”.

The court observed that the husband had neither produced evidence nor examined any witnesses to prove the allegations against the wife in order to prove that she had subjected him to cruelty. The court was also not convinced that the wife left home for eight months on her own. “If this allegation was true,no normal human being would have kept quiet for such a long time,” the court observed,adding that the appellant did not make any efforts to find her whereabouts during that period,nor did he approach the police and lodge a missing person complaint.

The court asked the husband to pay maintenance to the wife as directed by the court until she is allowed cohabitation with him.