Supreme Law News

Can a wife alleged of adultery claim maintenance ?

According to the Court, a woman can only be denied maintenance due to adultery if she is genuinely living in adultery at the time the maintenance request is made.

According to a recent ruling by the Madhya Pradesh High Court, a wife can only be denied maintenance due to adultery if she is actively engaging in adultery at the time she files a plea under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) asking her husband for maintenance.

The statement was delivered by a bench of Justice Prakash Chandra Gupta in support of a family court ruling requiring a man to provide maintenance for his ex-wife.

According to Section 125(4) of the CrPC, the man had claimed that his divorced wife had been having an affair with another man and was therefore not eligible to receive any maintenance.

According to Section 125(4) of the CrPC, a wife who is living in adultery is not eligible to get maintenance from her husband.

But, the man's case was rejected by the court, which pointed out that there was no evidence to support his wife's accusation of adultery at the time of the maintenance claim.

It is clear that adultery under Section 125(4) of the Criminal Procedure Code must be ongoing, and the burden of proof to establish this lies with the husband in order to prevent the wife from receiving maintenance. Only when the wife is truly "living in adultery" at or around the time of the maintenance application under S. 125 of Cr.P.C. can she be denied benefits on the grounds of "adultery," according to Justice Gupta.

The High Court was hearing a plea moved by a man challenging a family court's order directing him to pay ₹ 10,000 per month as maintenance to his estranged former wife under Section 125 of the CrPC.

The husband had earlier secured an ex-parte decree of divorce from his wife.

In the meanwhile, the wife filed an application seeking maintenance from her husband before a family court, where she alleged that he had subjected her to dowry harassment and physical abuse.

She further said that he had kicked her out of their marital residence and made her live in a rented room on her own.

The husband countered that he never harassed or mistreated his wife, nor had he ever asked a dowry from her. He insisted that his wife had left him willingly and without good cause.

Furthermore, he maintained that she was the more aggressive party in their relationship and that she had mistreated him verbally and physically as well as his family.

The spouse further argued that she had committed adultery and inappropriate communications with another man.

The wife's application for support was granted by the family court, which determined that she had good cause to live apart from her husband.

The husband, who was the petitioner, filed an appeal with the High Court since he was not happy with this ruling.

The High Court made it clear right away that even though her husband had obtained a divorce, the woman in this instance would be qualified to receive support. The Court clarified that a woman who has been divorced but has not yet remarried is included in the term of "wife" under Section 125, CrPC, which deals with maintenance claims.

The petitioner had not shown any reliable proof to back up his claim that his ex-wife had an extramarital affair, the court continued.

Despite the fact that the petitioner included images of himself with his ex-wife and another guy, the court pointed out that he failed to provide an electronic certificate in accordance with Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act to verify the legitimacy of the images.

The Court stressed that, in the absence of such a certificate, it is not possible to conclude, solely based on the images, that the wife had an affair with another man.

As a result, the court rejected the man's plea and maintained the trial court's decision.

JUDGEMENT

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