Accusing one's wife of having an extra-marital affair with the boss could some time prove embarrassing, as the Supreme Court pulled up a husband for levelling such an allegation to obtain a divorce.
"You have alleged that your wife has an illegal relationship with her boss. It is a very serious allegation against a lady. How can you say that your wife has an illegal affair with the boss?
"It is highly improper to make such an allegation against her without evidence. Is this the way a gentleman behaves with his wife?" a bench of justices Markandeya Katju and R M Lodha asked the husband.
On the contrary, the bench pointed out that the findings of the trial court was that it was the husband who had subjected the wife to cruelty and compelled her to leave the matrimonial home.
The bench passed the observation while initially declining to entertain an SLP filed by Amresh Kumar seeking divorce from his wife Sumathi on grounds of cruelty, desertion and irretrievable breakdown of marriage.
It, however, later admitted the petition after senior counsel Rajiv Datta forcefully pleaded that the petition should be admitted as the "marriage had irretrievably broken down." PTI
