“The decree obtained by the husband for divorce on proving the adulterous life of the wife cannot give a license to her to continue to live in illicit relationship and to get her right to claim maintenance revived.” — Justice Arvind Kumar Verma
In a significant ruling, the Chhattisgarh High Court has held that a divorced woman found to be living in adultery is not entitled to claim maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The Court emphasized that the statutory disqualification under Section 125(4) CrPC continues even after the dissolution of marriage, if the grounds for divorce were based on proven adultery.
The judgment came in a case where the Family Court had earlier directed a man to pay ₹4,000 per month as maintenance to his ex-wife. The husband challenged this order before the High Court, contending that his wife had engaged in an illicit relationship with his younger brother shortly after their marriage — a claim that had also formed the basis of their divorce. Meanwhile, the wife had sought enhancement of maintenance to ₹20,000, citing lack of income.
Justice Arvind Kumar Verma, who presided over the case, underscored that the woman’s disqualification existed throughout the marriage and did not vanish simply because a decree of divorce had been granted.
He observed, “Sub-Section 4 of Section 125 of the CrPC provides that if a woman lives in adultery, whose marriage is still subsisting, she is not entitled for maintenance from her husband. Suppose, a decree for divorce is granted on the ground of her living in adultery, can it be said that the said disqualification of which she was suffering from all along, during the subsistence of the marriage, will cease to exist, because of the decree for divorce? The prudent answer to this question shall be an emphatic – ‘No’.”
The Court noted that the divorce decree had been granted after a thorough examination of evidence proving the wife’s adulterous conduct, and since it had not been challenged, it was binding and constituted conclusive proof of adultery.
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the husband’s revision petition, set aside the Family Court’s order granting maintenance, and dismissed the wife’s plea for enhancement.
