Social network logs into divorce battles

CHENNAI: When 27-year-old K Subramani* was asked to produced evidence in the family court to validate his claim that his wife was “immoral”, he flashed a pixilated photo of a young woman in a sleeveless shirt and jeans with another man in the background. It was a photo dating to his wife’s college days that was put up on Facebook by her friend.
The lawyers and the judge weren’t surprised.Over the last one year, family courts have seen a sharp increase in couples presenting “evidence” from social networking sites to seek divorce. While some of the reasons may be absurd — a woman wanted to divorce her husband after he refused to change his relationship status on Facebook — courts are beginning to take such evidence seriously.
“Most of the couples who present evidence from social networking sites seek divorce on grounds of cruelty or adultery,” said V Kannadasan, president of the Family Court Advocates Association of Chennai.
“Although the trend has been around in other metros for some time, we are seeing social networking sites entering divorce battles in a big way in Chennai only over the last one year,” he said.
In some instances, the evidence is clear-cut: a man recently presented printouts of an explicit exchange between his wife and another man on Facebook to prove she was having an extramarital affair. Divorce was granted. In many cases, a counseling session is all it takes to reunite the duo, like that of a woman who sought divorce on grounds of cruelty, saying her husband spent “long hours” facebooking.
At times, divorce is granted within three or four months. Sometimes, the case drags on for 10 years or more. “But with social networking sites opening the window for couples to confirm their nagging suspicion, they investigate on their own and come armed with a bundle of evidence,” said Kannadasan. Lawyers say “spending time on Facebook or WhatsApping” is gradually replacing “watching porn online” as one of the grounds for divorce.
Social networking sites are not just being used as a means for divorce but are also used as weapons for character assassination. An IT professional, whose divorce case was pending before the court, allegedly put up a series of posts on Facebook attacking his wife. “Everyone in their family and friends circles knew the couple were having issues, but he seemed to want to let everyone know he was the victim in the relationship,” said lawyer T K R Sudha, who represents the wife.
Lawyers say adultery is often harder to prove, so most of evidence is used to establish cruelty. “Adultery is difficult to establish as it requires additional documents and photos alone won’t suffice,” said lawyer Sivakami Shanmugan. She cited a case she was handling. “The wife caught her husband flirting with a woman on Facebook without revealing that he was married. She applied for divorce citing adultery. The matter is still pending,” she said.
“Earlier, women showed bruises and cigarette butt marks, among others, to prove their husbands were ‘cruel’. That has changed now. Most of the evidences now are from the virtual world,” said D Prasanna, former president of women lawyers association. Kannadasan summed up: “Facebook and other social networking sites are playing as big a role in separating people as in uniting them.”
(*Name changed)