The Patna High Court has ruled that a divorce granted on the plea of adultery committed by the petitioner’s wife is illegal if the family court did not conduct a trial by making the alleged adulterer a necessary party. The court, a division bench of Justices P B Bajanthari and Arun Kumar Jhawhile, allowed the appeal of the aggrieved wife. The court found that the trial conducted by the family court was botched up, as no separate “issue” on alleged adultery was framed and no evidence was taken. The court and the version of the alleged adulterer were not taken as they were not made a party in the divorce petition.
The respondent husband filed the case in 2013 against his wife for allegations of cruelty and adultery committed by her husband with her brother-in-law. The woman denied all allegations and alleged cruelty and torture. The family court framed a single issue on the point of divorce and decided it in 2021 by passing a decree of divorce and fixing an alimony amount of Rs15 lakh to be paid to the wife. The aggrieved wife challenged the decree, arguing that the court did not frame a separate issue for conducting the trial on alleged adultery or heard the alleged adulterer, making the entire trial legally fragile.
