Desertion refers to a situation where one person abandons or leaves the other without any justification or explanation or actually forces the other spouse out of the house. It generally happens that when one deserts his or her spouse, it requires evidence of four elements:
- A voluntary separation of one spouse from the other
- With intention not to continue cohabitation
- Without the consent of the other spouse
- Without justification
It is very commonly seen that their husbands due to various reasons desert wives. These reasons may include extra marital affair or non-establishment of husband-wife relationship between the married couple. In such a situation, the woman is left all alone with no support of any kind. Also, since the olden times, most of the women are dependent on their spouse emotionally, physically as well as economically. Keeping in view the sad plight of women in such cases, there are some legal remedies that are made available to them. These include:
- Desertion Complaint: If the state allows, a civil complaint for desertion can be filed and it penalizes an individual who allows a spouse to become helpless and need public help. It will only be pursued if the spouse had the financial means to prevent destitution but choose to do otherwise. The main penalty for desertion is a year of imprisonment or a fine.
- Divorce: If the abandoned woman decides to end the marriage, desertion serves as the grounds for a divorce. Most of the states offer fault divorce on the basis of a variety of grounds. If her desertion qualifies for the fault divorce then there must be passage of some amount of time before a spouse can use the other spouse’s absence as reason for the divorce.
- Alienation of Affection Lawsuit: In this, an abandoned spouse can sue a third party who was responsible for the end of the spouse’s marriage.
Also, there are other remedies of the kind that can be taken help of.
For further assistance, Please contact Law office of G. S. Bagga and Associates, We provide free consultation.
