
HC: Wife transferred away from home can't be construed as desertion
NT Correspondent
Bengaluru: The wife staying away from the house of the husband as she was transferred to another place as a government employee cannot be termed as desertion, the High Court of Karnataka has said. The court upheld a Family Court judgement that had refused to grant divorce to the husband on the grounds of desertion.
“We have already analysed the evidence placed before this Court and from which it is apparent that the wife was staying away from the house of the husband as she was employed as a Government teacher in a primary school which was away from the house of the husband. That being the position the act of the wife staying away from the place away from the house of the husband cannot be termed as an act of desertion,” the HC said in its judgement dismissing the appeal filed by the husband. Both the husband and wife are gover nment school teachers.
They were working in different towns when they married in 2003. At the time of marriage, the husband’s job was temporary and the wife was earning more than him. They had a son in 2004. The husband approached the Family Court seeking divorce in 2013 citing cruelty and desertion. He alleged that his wife did not take care of his mother and had deserted him.
Well reasoned judgement The Family Court in 2017 dismissed the plea of the husband. He approached the High Court with an appeal in 2017 which was heard by the Division Bench of Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anant Ramanath Hegde which gave its judgement recently. The HC noted that the desertion of the wife claimed by the wife is not made out.
“A deserted spouse must prove that there is a factum of separation and there is an intention on the part of the deserting spouse to bring the cohabitation to a permanent end,” it said. But on the other hand, the husband had not even tried to bring back the wife. “There is nothing in the pleading to show that the husband has attempted to bring his wife back to the marital home. Even the evidence is not led by the husband to show that he has attempted to bring back the wife to the marital home,” the HC noted.
The HC upheld the judgement of the Family Court and said, “We have also gone through the reasoning assigned by the Family Court in dismissing the petition seeking the dissolution of the marriage. The Family Court has given a finding that the husband has not established the plea of cruelty as well as desertion.”
Dismissing the appeal filed by the husband, the HC said, “The Court has also concluded that the wife was staying away from the husband on account of her avocation as a Government school teacher in Igoor and the act of the wife staying away from the husband cannot be construed as an act of desertion. Under these circumstances, this Court is of the view that there are no grounds to grant a decree for the dissolution of marriage by setting aside the well-reasoned judgement passed by the Family Court.” (MFA 308/2017)