Mumbai: Woman labelled an 'adulteress' gets relief from High Court

A woman, labeled by a family court as an adulteress was given some reprieve by the Bombay high court after they reprimanded the family court for branding her as an adulteress and canceling her maintenance without any evidence. A report by the Times of India said that the judge at the family court had ignored orders that rejected the woman's husband's claim that she was living with another man.

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In a statement, a Bombay High Court judge said, "It is apparent that the trial court has not at all appreciated the evidence on record properly and drawn the conclusions which were not borne out from the material. The court should have taken sufficient care before branding the woman with the stigma of "living in adultery" when it was to be not proved by the courts in three earlier proceedings."

The woman's plight started when, in 2014 a family court canceled a decade old order granting the woman and her son maintenance on the basis of their divorce petition. "The trial court committed a grave error in holding that man has proved that (his ex-wife) was living in adultery ... Merely because divorce is granted, the trial court has without reading the said judgment assumed that it was on the ground of adultery." Said the judge.

Justice Phansalkar-Joshi said, "The least expected from the trial court was to peruse the said judgment to know that divorce was granted only on the ground of desertion and not on the ground of adultery at all."

The couple had separated after the husband had accused his wife of adultery and living with another man since 1990. In 1998 the woman and her child were granted maintenance under the Criminal Procedure Code. The court also rejected the husband's allegation of adultery against his wife. In 2006, the couple was granted a divorce on the grounds that the woman had deserted the man. A second district court also rejected the husband's claims of adultery against the woman.

But, eight years later, in 2014, a family court canceled the maintenance granted to the woman on the grounds of adultery. As proof, the husband had submitted an affidavit by the man who is said to have been living with the woman. However, the man failed to appear in court for cross-examination despite warrants being issued in his name. As per the High Court, in the appeal filed by the woman, she said, "The cancellation of the amount of maintenance, awarded to her on that count (of adultery) is totally illegal and unjust."

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