Marriage not valid if not performed under accepted ceremonies: Bombay High Court

According to the woman, the man applied sindoor and put the mangalsutra around her neck before an idol of Lord Krishna in Ravinagar, Nagpur, on April 16, 2012. They had physical relations afterwards.

The man’s parents were against this relationship. Later, they arranged his marriage with another girl from his own community. The first woman then lodged a complaint against the man alleging sexual exploitation.

The man, meanwhile, appealed the High Court against a Family Court order, which held that marriage rights be restored to the first woman, who had two children from a previous marriage.

His appeal was allowed by the High Court, which held, “She was no longer a young girl who would have not understood the sanctity of marriage. It is indigestible that the woman aged about 36 years was not aware of the rites and rituals and the ceremonies of Hindu marriage,” said the court.

“The Family Court has misinterpreted all text messages between them and has come to an erroneous conclusion that all the messages proved that there was physical relationship between the parties and there was intimacy between them and, therefore, certainly they had married each other and it was a valid marriage. In our opinion, though there might be physical relationship, there was no valid marriage between the parties as per the provisions of Hindu Marriage Act. In fact, there was no live-in relationship between them,” said Justice Dharmadhikari.

According to the woman, the marriage was performed under a modified form of Shastric Hindu law. The court stated, “…where a marriage is alleged to have been performed in accordance with any modified form of Shastric Hindu Law, it must be proved as a custom. In the absence of a plea as to the custom, no amount of evidence can be looked into.”