2 Army Majors, Extramarital Affair And Court’s “Burden Of Fidelity” Comment
The court observed that the purported couple were entitled to privacy at the hotel, and that it protected their booking information and data from any third party.
New Delhi:
Maintaining the right to privacy in a case of alleged extramarital affair between two Army officers, a Delhi court has turned down a plea asking for CCTV footage of a hotel. The petition was made by an Indian Army Major who accused his wife of having an affair with another officer who is also a Major.
The court said that the claimed couple was entitled to privacy at the hotel, and it protected their information and booking details from any third party, Livelaw reported. Civil Judge Vaibhav Pratap Singh remarked that the hotels should keep their guests confidential.
“The right to privacy and to be left alone in a hotel would pertain to common areas against a third party who was not there and has no other legally justified right to procure the data of the guest. Same would apply to the booking details,” stated the Judge.
The petition further complained about the wife and the alleged lover’s right to be heard, he added, as they were not included in the suit despite being at the centre of the case.
The Judge opined that it was questionable whether the hotel could be ordered to produce the footage without bringing the alleged couple into the suit.
“The disclosure of such personal details without giving them a chance to vindicate their right to privacy would be contrary to their right to natural justice and even the constitutional right to privacy and could cause reputational damage,” the court noted.
It further held that courts are not investigating agencies for private grievances or a vehicle for gathering evidence in internal proceedings.
The Judge held that the complainant has to approach remedies under the Army Act, 1950 and the prevailing rules, observing that the court cannot be resorted to in order to short circuit or complement the in-house mechanisms.
He also referenced Graham Greene’s ‘The End of the Affair’ in his ruling, in which he stated the “burden of fidelity” lies on the one who gave the promise. “It is not the lover who has cheated the marriage, but the one who took the vow and broke it. The outsider was never bound by it,” the order stated.
The Judge also referred to a historic judgment on adultery by the Supreme Court. Quoting the 2018 Joseph Shinde vs Union of India case, he stated that the highest court had disapproved the idea that a man would ‘steal’ the heart of another man’s wife, creating an image that she was not able to decide whom to love.
Refuting what he termed as a “dated concept” that a woman could be stolen by a man, Judge Singh declared that it “dehumanises” women.
He mentioned that even the Parliament had abolished the law of adultery while passing the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). This indicated that contemporary Bharat has no room for gender condescension and patriarchal attitudes, Judge Singh averred.
