Epaper
HYDERABAD: A couple was granted divorce by the AP High Court after the husband approached the court as his wife – who suffered from bronchial asthma – had suppressed this information at the time of marriage and also as her illness forced her to stay in India while he was based in the US.
The court, while pointing out that bronchial asthma by itself may not render a person unfit for cohabitation and conjugal life, said that it could affect married life if the bouts of attack were too frequent.
The couple were married in 1989 but had been living separately since 1991. The petitioner, a US-based dancer, said that even during her short visit to the United States in 1990 she had had an attack. He also said that his wife, an academician, had suppressed the information about her illness before the marriage and he came to know of it only later. He sought divorce on the ground that it was not possible for them to cohabit as he was based in the US and his wife could not live there because of her illness.
A two-member bench comprising Justices A Gopal Reddy and N Ram Mohan Rao, while expressing their happiness with the two parties for their restraint and how they never made any allegations against each other, said that it was not practical for the couple to live together. The bench, however, directed the husband to pay a lump sum amount of $ 10,000.