Maintenance petition cannot be rejected merely because of inability of deaf and dumb wife to understand sign language of expert, when being literate person she was able to read and write

The wife applied for maintenance for herself and her daughter from her husband which was rejected by the Family Court on the ground that marriage between her and the husband was not proved and the paternity of the daughter was not also proved.

Family Court disbelieved the wife’s case for reason that her mother was not present during her marriage with the husband and the wife failed to communicate her statement to the court as she was unable to understand the sign language of the expert as a result the interpreter could not interpret her evidence to the Court.

However, the wife was able to communicate to the court by her signs and gestures that everything of her life was known to her mother. Wife is a literate person, able to read and write.

Court held that in case of any doubt, the court could have asked her to communicate her words in writing and could have also cleared its doubts from the mother of the petitioner by putting the questions to her in the exercise of its power under Section 165 of the Evidence Act.

Without taking any recourse to other means of communication, rejection of petition declining grant maintenance allowance, unacceptable.

Counsels: Mr. S. Lodh, Mr. K. Saha, Mr. S. Ghosh