Doubting paternity is cruelty, HC tells man who undertook DNA test

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has told a man who knocked on its doors seeking divorce that his wife staying away from him since 2000 does not amount to desertion as he had doubted the paternity of their son.

But at the same time he doubted paternity amounted to cruelty against her. The Bengaluru resident had approached the Family Court seeking divorce from his wife in 2013.

The Court in its order in 2017 rejected his petition. He was 60 when he approached the High Court in 2017 with an appeal. The HC bench of Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anant Ramanath Hegde gave their judgement on it recently.

“The evidence on record would clearly reveal that the husband has doubted the paternity of his son and this allegation is a serious allegation. For this reason, the wife left the company of the husband in the year 2000. The said act of the wife staying away from the company of the husband along with her son, at no stretch of imagination can be construed as an act of desertion considering the baseless allegations on the character of the wife,”

At the same time, the conduct of the husband amounted to cruelty, the Court said.

“On the other hand the very conduct of the husband suspecting the paternity of his own son is an act of cruelty by the husband on his wife. This being the position, the Family Court has declined to accept the contention that the husband has made out a case for dissolution of marriage on the ground of cruelty and desertion,” it said.

Property dispute The couple was married in April 1984. The husband claimed the wife left him in 2000 and came back “all of a sudden” in 2012 and demanded a share for herself and her son in the family properties.

He claimed he was not even aware of the birth of a son till then. It was further claimed that the wife produced a DNA test report and asserted that the son was born to him.

He claimed he was subjected to humiliation on account of being forced to take a DNA test. The wife on the other hand claimed that the son was born in 1989 and her husband had started disputing the paternity of the child on the ill-advice of his family members.

She continued to live with him till 2000 when she was driven out of the house along with her son. She claimed the husband abandoned them when the child was only 11 years old.

In 2012, the son offered to undergo a DNA test and the husband also offered himself for the test which confirmed their relationship. The wife claimed that she sought a share for her son in the property as the husband was trying to alienate it.

Dismissing the appeal the HC said that the husband was not entitled for divorce even if has established that the wife lived separately for a long time as it was because of his action that she was forced to live separately.

“The evidence on record would clearly lead to the conclusion that on account of baseless allegations levelled by the husband, the wife is constrained to stay away from the company of the husband. The husband cannot be permitted to take advantage of his own fault where he has levelled false allegations against the character of his wife by suspecting the paternity of his son,” the HC said. Doubting paternity is cruelty, HC tells man who undertook DNA test