Marriage without sex is 'anathema' and a life partner's AIDS affliction could be a valid ground to grant divorce to the spouse seeking it, a local court in Delhi stated on Thursday.

Observing that a person cannot live happily with a HIV positive spouse, the court granted divorce to a man whose wife is suffering from the disease, saying her ailment had prevented him from leading a "happy married life."

"The disease being sexually communicable, therefore, the petitioner (husband) cannot be reasonably expected to live with the respondent (wife) and lead a happy married life,"

Additional District Judge Rajnish Bhatnagar said while passing the judgment in favour of the husband who had sought divorce.

The court further said that sex was an integral part of marriage and the husband was deprived of that enjoyment as the wife was suffering from the communicable disease.

"The HIV status of the wife no doubt resulted in non enjoyment of sexual intercourse between the parties and marriage without sex is anathema," the court said.

The couple, who hail from Kerala [Images], got married seven years ago. Five months after the marriage, the wife was found to be HIV positive in a medical test conducted during her pregnancy.

However, the husband was found to be HIV negative when he underwent the test.