MUMBAI: A local court on Friday rejected a 38-year-old South Mumbai woman’s plea for maintenance from her estranged husband after it found she was involved in an adulterous relationship.

“The wife who engaged herself in (an) adulterous relationship with a man … cannot claim maintenance and cannot be allowed to take advantage of her own wrongdoings,” the court said while accepting the 40-year-old husband’s plea seeking divorce on grounds of cruelty and adultery.

The couple were married in 1999 and have 12-year-old son. The husband ran a business at Nana Chowk and used to return home after 10pm. In his petition, he alleged that when he returned home early one day in November 2005, he found his child alone at home. The husband alleged that he repeatedly made attempts to contact his wife on the phone, but it was switched off. When she finally returned home at 7.45pm, she gave evasive answers and claimed to have met a woman friend. However, when the husband inquired with the friend, she denied she had met his wife.

The man claimed the woman confessed the next day and told him she had gone out with her neighbour to a hotel. He said he also got to know that the man had visited the house in his absence, and residents had seen his wife with him.

The husband filed the divorce petition in December 2005.

Both the wife and the man against whom her husband had levelled allegations denied having an affair. The woman claimed she was forced to write the confession statement. She accused her father-in-law, stepmother-in-law and sisters-in-law of harassing her for dowry and forced her to leave the home.

The court observed that the woman could have easily complained to police and her parents about being forced to write it once she was at her parents’ home. In the absence of such complaints, the court said her version was not believable. The husband had also produced a picture of the woman and the alleged lover along with his child, shot outside the city.

The court also pointed out that the child looked comfortable in the presence of the man, and this showed the extra-marital relationship had been a long affair.

The court also accepted the evidence of two residents of the building who supported the husband’s claims. Granting the divorce, the court said: “The husband cannot be asked to continue his marital relations with his wife who has breached the marital trust between husband and wife.”

