Avi, 1. Which assertions? 2. I’m not referring exclusively to compulsion. I’m speaking more generally of requiring him, per halacha, to give it even if they cannot compel him. Shulchan Aruch provides very few circumstances where beis din has the authority to even instruct him to give it, if he desires not to. By default, in the absence of specifically recognized “cause” listed in the Gemora and Shulchan Aruch that permit beis din to render a verdict instructing him he is obligated to give it, he has no such obligation. And there are few causes that halacha provides that give beis din the authority to instruct him to give a divorce. Those causes center around him having a physical deformity or there having been eyewitness testimony in beis din as to his physical violence. (In the latter case Shulchan Aruch rules that he is to be given a second chance, under beis din warning that if it reoccurs he will be instructed he is obligated to divorce. S”A also specifies that if he denies it occurred, the beis din shall place an agent in their home in order to ascertain and witness the truth of the allegations.)
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