No Divorce For Man Who Falsely Claimed Wife Is HIV Positive: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court has refused to grant divorce to a 44-year-old man from Pune who falsely claimed his wife was HIV positive due to which he suffered mental agony.

A division bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and Sharmila Deshmukh in its order of November 16 dismissed the appeal filed by the man in 2011, challenging an order passed by a family court in Pune the same year refusing his petition for divorce.

The man has not produced any evidence that his wife had tested positive for HIV, which caused him mental agony, the high court said, adding that his prayer for grant of divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage is liable to be rejected outright.

The couple got married in March 2003 and the man claimed his wife was of whimsical nature, stubborn, short-tempered and did not behave properly with him or his family members.

She had also suffered from tuberculosis and later with herpes, the man further claimed.

As per his plea, a test later conducted on his wife in 2005 revealed she was HIV positive.

The man subsequently sought divorce.

The wife, however, refuted the claims and said her HIV test had come out negative, but still her husband spread rumours about this among her family members, thus causing mental agony to her.

The high court bench in its order said the man failed to produce the medical report of his wife showing she was HIV positive.

"There is not an iota of evidence produced by the petitioner husband that the respondent wife had tested positive for HIV, which caused him mental agony or that the wife has treated him with cruelty," the high court said.

"In spite of the medical report which shows the test result as HIV DNA "not detected", the petitioner has refused to co-habit with the respondent and defamed the respondent in the society by informing relatives and friends that the respondent has tested positive," it said.

Hence, the husband's prayer for grant of divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage is liable to be rejected outright, the bench said in its order.
 

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