Instagram chats alone can't prove wife living in adultery, says Allahabad HC

The Allahabad High Court dismissed a husband's plea to stop his wife's maintenance over alleged Instagram chats. It said only clear, legally admissible proof of continuous adultery can defeat such a claim.Court said husband must prove continuous adultery to deny maintenance. (Photo: AI-generated)Prayagraj,Oct 2, 2026 23:57 ISTThe Allahabad High Court has said that a husband cannot rely only on social media messages to prove that his wife is continuously living in adultery, holding that such chats without corroborative evidence cannot be used to deny her maintenance.The observation was made by Justice Jai Krishna Upadhyay while hearing a husband's petition challenging a family court order directing him to pay maintenance to his wife. The High Court later dismissed his challenge in a judgment dated September 29.The husband had argued that his wife was not entitled to maintenance because she was living in adultery. To support this, he relied on printouts of Instagram chats allegedly exchanged between her and an advocate, with whom he claimed she was in an adulterous relationship.The court said, "Even if, for the sake of argument, the contents of the unverified chats were to be perused, mere text messages on a social media platform without corroborative evidence of physical intimacy or cohabitation are thoroughly insufficient to legally establish that the wife is continuously living in adultery." Explaining the legal position, the court said that living in adultery, a ground for denying maintenance to a wife under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure or now Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, means a continuous, ongoing and habitual course of adulterous conduct.It added, "It does not encompass a single, fleeting lapse, nor can it be inferred from mere conversational interactions, professional associations or unsubstantiated suspicions. For a husband to successfully non-suit a wife's claim for maintenance at the threshold, he must present clear and cogent evidence." The court also said, "After going through the entire facts and record the high court said that the husband has to prove a continuous adulterous lifestyle of his wife to deny maintenance to her. Instagram chats were not sufficient to establish the alleged adultery."It further observed that electronic evidence requires strict verification under Section 65-B of the Indian Evidence Act because of the inherent vulnerabilities of digital data, and noted that the husband had not produced the mandatory statutory certification.Finding that the Instagram messages were not enough to prove that the wife was living in adultery, the High Court dismissed the husband's plea against the family court order, reiterating that clear and legally admissible evidence is needed to deny maintenance on that ground.- Ends