Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has ruled that ordering a husband to undergo a potency test for erectile dysfunctioning in matrimonial disputes by the court cannot be considered as intruding into the privacy of the individual or infringing on fundamental right.
Justice B Siva Sankar Rao was dismissing two separate criminal revision petitions wherein the petitioners sought to set aside the orders passed by the Sessions Courts allowing the police to conduct a potency test against them after they were accused in different dowry and cheating cases.
The charges against both the petitioners are that they have cheated their wives by suppressing the fact of their impotency. The wives of the petitioners and their parents, in their complaints before the police, alleged that the marriages were not even consummated because of the impotency of the petitioners.
The parents of the petitioners alleged that though they paid huge amounts as dowry, the petitioners subjected their daughters to mental and physical torture demanding more dowry from them.
The petitioners contended that since the police had already filed charge sheets, there was no requirement of taking such tests. Conducting such tests would amount to intruding into the personal life and meddling with fundamental liberty that go against the petitioner’s wish.
They also contended that all the allegations were baseless and made to malign them amounting to character assassination. Non–consummation of marriage by itself does not amount to impotency.
The prosecution contended that the order of the lower revision courts is well within its scope of law and the same is necessary for effective adjudication of the case.
The judge pointed out that status of petitioners potency has to be tested by the investigating agency when charges of cheating made against them as part of the investigation of the accusation.
