Nagpur: Coming to a woman’s rescue, the family court here dismissed her husband’s plea for divorce, ruling that a
college friendship cannot be presumed to be an inappropriate relationship between a boy and girl. The husband had alleged in court that his wife and the boy were in relationship since college days, and she and her parents suppressed this fact from him.
“The wife and her friend were studying in one and the same college. They were acquainted with each other and there was friendship between them. However, there is no proof of inappropriate relations between them. While studying together there may be friendship between girl and boy, but it doesn’t mean that there is inappropriate relationship between them,” judge Subhash Kafre held.
After their marriage on June 28, 2012, the couple was at loggerheads right from day one as the husband accused the wife of not allowing him to maintain physical relations. He accused her of having illicit relations with her college mate, due to which she was not ready to cohabit with him. He further charged her with speaking to the boyfriend for hours, and even threatening him with committing suicide.
The husband further claimed that the wife had deserted him and went back to her matrimonial home. She came back reluctantly, but told him that she was disinterested in him, as she was madly in love with her boyfriend. She clearly told him that she didn’t consider him as her husband, and they can live as friends under one roof. She also advised him to get a divorce from her, so that she could rejoin her old mate.
Subsequently, the husband approached the court for separation, claiming that he was deceived by the wife and her parents.
Denying all adverse allegations, the wife replied that she was facing some menstrual problems and therefore didn’t allow him to establish physical relations. She in turn alleged the husband suffered from physical disorder and therefore failed to establish sexual contact with her, and hence, their marriage was never consummated. Stressing that she and her college mate were just “good friends”, she denied all charges of adultery. Even the boyfriend endorsed her, stating that there was nothing between them.
The judge pointed out that when the husband is charging the in-laws with deceiving him, he had gone to their home to bring the wife back. “It can’t be accepted that when he was cheated by the wife, he would go to bring her back for cohabitation. In natural course of conduct, the cheated husband would not request cheater wife to resume cohabitation.”
While rejecting the plea, Kafre added that evidence adduced by the husband doesn’t inspire confidence to make out the case that the wife obtained his consent for marriage by playing fraud or by concealing facts.
