CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has held that circumstantial evidence is sufficient for dissolution of marriage on the ground of adultery since it is very difficult to prove adultery through direct evidence.
The court made the observations recently while setting aside an order of a family court in Villupuram which dismissed a divorce petition filed by a constable attached to the CRPF. He had sought the divorce on the grounds of his wife having an illicit intimate relationship with another man.
“It is also to be noted that adultery itself is an act of secrecy. It is extremely difficult to produce any direct evidence on the issue of adultery or sexual intercourse,” said a division bench of justices C V Karthikeyan and K Rajasekar in a recent judgment on the appeal filed by the CRPF constable.
It noted that prior to the amendment of the Hindu Marriage Act, the ground of adultery was taken into consideration for granting the relief of dissolution of marriage. Subsequent to the amendment, the words “sexual intercourse” had been introduced. It has to be pointed out that direct evidence on sexual intercourse could never be adduced by any party, it said.
The marriage of the appellant was solemnised on January 24, 2011. Since he was serving in the central paramilitary force, he used to visit home only twice a year. Due to differences and her illicit relationship with another man, he sent her a legal notice and later filed a divorce petition under Section 13 (1) (i) of the Hindu Marriage Act at the family court in Villupuram. The court dismissed the petition holding the charges of adultery were not proved.
Subsequently, he approached the HC with an appeal. To prove the charges, he had submitted the evidence deposed by certain local villagers and an ambulance driver of a government medical college hospital, a photograph in which his wife was sitting closely with the man whom she had developed an illicit intimate relationship.
The bench said it was conscious that dissolution can be granted only when sexual intercourse is proved and reiterated that it would be extremely impossible to get direct evidence on sexual intercourse.
