DNA Test Best Way For Husband To Ensure Wife Hasn't Been Unfaithful: Allahabad HC

In a recent ruling, the Allahabad High Court observed that a DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) test is the most "rightful" way of determining paternity for the husband in case of doubts about the wife's fidelity. This comes following a 2018 order relating to a couple, where the wife had challenged the husband's filing for divorce. He had cited adultery on her part, on grounds of a male offspring produced during a timeline that did not corroborate.

The issue before the court was whether a wife, divorced on grounds of infidelity, could be directed by the court to a DNA test under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. As per Live Law, the bench constituting Justice Vivek Agarwal, has now said, "This should simultaneously be taken as the most authentic, rightful and correct means also with the wife, for her to rebut the assertions made by the respondent-husband, and to establish that she had not been unfaithful, adulterous or disloyal."

Case Background

The case in connection to the Allahabad HC's observation is from 2018. A woman had filed a petition objecting to her husband's appeal for her DNA test after he alleged she had been unfaithful to him.

The order says, "According to the husband-respondent, he is not living with his wife i.e. the petitioner since 15.01.2013 and there has been no resumption of cohabitation since then. On 25.06.2014, husband had given customary divorce to the petitioner... A male child was born to the petitioner on 26.01.2016 in her paternal house."

The woman, on the other hand, claimed, "when she was pregnant then she was tortured by her husband and was driven out of the matrimonial home."

The Allahabad HC has dismissed the woman's petition, citing previous examples from a Supreme Court hearing, which had concluded that a DNA test is the "most legitimate and scientifically perfect means, which the husband could use, to establish his assertion of infidelity."

Other Examples of Infidelity Suspicions turning Violent

In October this year, a man in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda region beheaded his wife on the suspicion of infidelity. He then carried the wife’s severed head to the Police Station and surrendered himself. Reportedly, the video of the man carrying his wife’s head has gone viral on social media.

Another shocking incident in July 2020 came when a Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) jawan killed his wife by electrocuting her private parts over the suspicion of her extra-marital affair. Read our full report here.