The Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissed a husband’s demand for a medical examination to prove his wife’s alleged refusal to engage in sexual relations. The Court called it “nothing but invasion of privacy,” slamming down his virginity-test plea.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissed a husband’s request for his wife’s medical examination to prove her alleged refusal to engage in sexual relations with him.
In its ruling on January 21, Justice Vivek Jain stated that the husband’s request amounted to a demand for a virginity test, albeit phrased differently.
The Court highlighted that the condition of a woman’s hymen should not be used as a basis to determine whether she has engaged in sexual intercourse.
The bench stated,
“The recent judicial trend is heavily against conducting virginity test of a woman and even otherwise it is medically well settled that even after sexual intercourse hymen may remain intact in some rare cases, and on other hand, hymen may be damaged even without sexual intercourse upon any other physical activity and, therefore, presence or absence of hymen, would not be a determinative factor to infer that whether there has been sexual intercourse with the respondent ever or not,”
In a pending divorce case in a family court, the husband claimed cruelty, asserting that his wife’s refusal to have a sexual relationship constituted cruelty. The wife, in her defense, accused him of dowry harassment and sodomy.
Last month, the family court declined to order a medical evaluation of the wife, given that the divorce was sought on grounds of cruelty. Following this, the husband approached the High Court.
His attorney contended that in matrimonial disputes, the right to privacy should not protect medical examinations requested in connection with divorce grounds.
However, the High Court pointed out that whether or not sexual relations occurred does not constitute a valid ground for divorce.
The Court noted that this fact might only be relevant to assess potential cruelty by the wife for refusing sexual relations but does not qualify as grounds for declaring the marriage void or voidable under Sections 11 and 12 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, nor does it form a basis for divorce under Section 13.
The court also observed that there was no allegation of impotence against the husband that would necessitate his medical examination.
Furthermore, the Court mentioned that sodomy could not be confirmed through medical exams long after the alleged incidents took place, emphasizing that such examinations would invade the wife’s privacy and subject her to humiliation.
The Court also referenced the Supreme Court’s strong disapproval of virginity tests, indicating that the two-finger test is irrelevant.
The High Court asserted,
“Looking to the aforesaid medical guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which have been considered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the aforesaid judgement and ultimately the Hon’ble Supreme Court deprecated the practice of conducting two-finger test or virginity test, therefore, the prayer being made in the present petition would be nothing but invasion on privacy of the respondent, which otherwise also is not a direct ground to seek divorce, and not essential to adjudicate on the issues arising in the present case,”
Consequently, the Court found no merit in the husband’s request for his wife’s medical examination, ruling that such a test does not pertain to divorce proceedings, as refusal to engage in sexual relations does not constitute grounds for divorce either.
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It emphasized that the husband could present other evidence to demonstrate the wife’s alleged reluctance to engage in sexual relations as indicated in the divorce petition.
The Court in its decision to reject the plea, affirmed ,
“Virginity test or ‘two-finger test’ of the wife would neither be relevant nor be conclusive for the purposes of the divorce petition. It would be nothing but invasion of privacy,”
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