Marital discord within 1 month
The man claimed that he was employed in the United States of America (USA) and returned to India in February 2016, a few days before his marriage to the woman.
However, he claimed that since 2007 his wife was suffering from a chronic condition called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, a blood disorder where your immune system attacks and destroys platelets. The husband alleged that this was deliberately suppressed by the wife and her family during the pre-marriage discussions.
The man claimed that he learnt about it for the first time in March 2016, during a hospital visit, and alleged that his consent for the marriage had hence been vitiated.
On the contrary, the woman claimed that her father had gathered her medical file and blood reports and sent them to the man’s father through DTDC courier in January 2016, a month before the wedding, to ensure that her medical history was disclosed. She also claimed that the man did not deny receiving the medical reports.
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The wife added that the allegations of concealment were an afterthought and were made after the marriage ran into difficulties within the first week over demands for money and ornaments.
The trial court later dismissed the husband’s plea to annul the marriage, holding that the man failed to prove that his wife’s medical condition was serious enough to affect the marriage or that it had been concealed from him. Aggrieved, he moved the high court with this appeal.
‘Long-standing condition’
The husband, through advocate Ajoy Roy Chowdhury, argued that the wife had admitted that she was under treatment from 2007 to 2013 and had been hospitalised three times before the marriage, which, according to him, showed that she had a serious and long-standing medical condition.
On the contrary, the wife, through advocate Sabyasachi Mukherjee, argued that her husband had not examined the key witness in the case, his own father, who could have confirmed whether he had received her medical records.
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Man’s father not examined: Court
The court noted that the husband’s own pleadings showed that health was one of the issues discussed between the two families during the marriage negotiations. “An admission in the pleading of a party is the best evidence against him and requires no proof,” it added.
It also noted that the man’s father was the main person involved in the marriage negotiations and the person to whom the medical file was allegedly sent. “He was the only person who could have deposed, one way or the other, as to what was disclosed during the negotiations and as to whether the consignment was received by him,” the court added.
However, the man did not examine his father as a witness. “Even if it is assumed that the respondent (wife) and her family said nothing at all about her medical history, the case would remain one of silence, not of active concealment,” the court pointed out.
The court also noted that the man returned to India eight days before the wedding but did not ask the woman, her family or even his own father about her medical history. He also did not seek any medical information before the marriage. It further noted that the man did not examine any doctor or produce medical evidence to show that the woman’s condition affected married life, fertility or her ability to perform marital obligations.
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Accordingly, the court dismissed the appeal and upheld the trial court’s decision, directing the husband to pay Rs 1 lakh to the wife as costs of the appeal.
