Spouse can sue partner’s lover in adultery cases for interfering with marriage: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that a married person can file a civil suit seeking damages from their partner’s lover in adultery cases for intentionally interfering and causing the end of the marriage.

In a September 15 order, a bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said that the damages can be claimed under “alienation of affection”.

Alienation of affection is a civil wrong, originating in Anglo-American common law, allowing a spouse to seek monetary compensation from a third party accused of breaking up a marriage or causing loss of affection. It is not codified under Indian law.

In its September 15 order, the court clarified that the petitioner must prove “intentional and wrongful conduct” aimed at “alienating the marital relationship”.

There must be “clear causation” linking the third party’s actions and injury to the petitioner, and the loss claimed should be based on a “rational assessment”, the order said.

“A spouse is held to possess a protectable interest in marital consortium, intimacy, and companionship, the correlative legal duty would be that any third party must not intentionally and wrongfully interfere with that relationship by acts calculated to alienate the affection of a spouse to the other spouse,” the court said.

However, damages cannot be claimed if the unfaithful spouse’s actions were “completely voluntary, not induced...

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