Authors : Daleleer Kaur Randawar and Sheela Jayabalan
Abstract: Divorce can be ugly at the best of times but where adultery is concerned the court often becomes even more aggressive and adversarial. For an adulterer who is looking to get child custody, the battle will be much harder as the behavior of the unfaithful spouse can have a negative effect on his or her custody and visitation rights. The laws are meant to focus on the child not the parent. One emerging concern in the area of child custody is when adulterous parent demands for the custody of the child. The mere fact that a husband or wife is unfaithful does not make them a bad parent. However, concern arises as to whether an adulterous parent who is granted with the custody right who proceeds to carry on with the adulterous affair. If this happens, it may jeopardize the health and welfare of the children. This would also put a greater weight in determining the custody of the child. This study attempts to look as to how far will the wishes of an adulterous parent be considered by the court. This study will explore as to how the law reconciles the tension pertaining to the battle of custody between an adulterous and innocent parent. Several cases, statutory provisions and other legal and non-legal literature is studied in order to see how adultery affects the custody of a child. This study proves that welfare of a child is always focused as the paramount consideration in deciding disputes relating to custody.
Daleleer Kaur Randawar and Sheela Jayabalan, 2016. The Implication of Adultery in Child Custody Cases in Malaysia. The Social Sciences, 11: 7183-7188.