'Not responding to court is also desertion'

Woman ignores Family Court and High Court notices; husband gets divorce for desertion 

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Dissolving a marriage of a couple on the grounds of desertion by the woman, the High Court noted that the wife had not even responded to summons of the Family Court and its own notices. This, the Court said, proved that the woman had deserted her husband.

“On perusal of the evidence of appellant in its entirety, the ground of desertion for dissolution of marriage is clearly made out. The respondent despite service of notice neither appeared before the Trial Court nor has appeared before this Court.

In the facts and circumstances of the case, the Trial Court ought to have granted the decree dissolving the marriage on the grounds of desertion,” the Division Bench of Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty said in their judgment on the appeal filed by one JC Vijayakumar, a resident of Javagal, Arasikere.

Vijayakumar had filed the appeal in 2014 after the Family Court had rejected his application for dissolution of marriage. He had married KV Manjual on March 28, 2005. After a child was born, the relationship between the couple strained. They were unable to resolve the differences, and Manjula left the matrimonial home in 2010.

Vijayakumar’s notice for dissolution of marriage in 2011 elicited no response from his wife and therefore he approached the Family Court for divorce on the grounds of cruelty and desertion in 2013. Manjula did not appear before the court. The court held that Vijayakumar had failed to prove the ground of cruelty for the dissolution of marriage. It did not however examine the ground pertaining to desertion and dismissed his petition.

He then approached the HC. The HC division bench in its judgement on January 9, 2023, said, “It is settled in law that when the other side leads no evidence, a very little evidence is required to discharge the burden that there is no plausible reason to disbelieve the uncontroverted testimony of the appellant.”

Modifying the Trial Court order, the HC said, “The impugned judgment and decree in so far as it relates to rejecting the claim of the appellant for dissolution of marriage on the ground of desertion is set aside. The marriage between the parties performed on 28.03.2005 is dissolved by a decree of divorce on the ground of desertion.”