A Man Becoming A Woman's Partner Without A Legal Marriage Not Covered By Term ‘Husband’ U/s. 498A IPC: Kerala HC
The Kerala High Court has held that a man who becomes a woman’s partner without a legal marriage is not covered by the term ‘husband’ under Section 498A IPC.
The Court allowed a petition filed by the petitioner for quashing the criminal case alleging cruelty under Section 498A of the IPC. The Court noted that the marriage solemnized between the petitioner and the complainant was declared null and void by the family court as it was allegedly done during the subsistence of another marriage of the complainant.
A Single Bench of Justice A. Badharudeen observed, “Thus it is emphatically clear that when there is no legal marriage the woman's partner did not attain the status of her husband and an offence under Section 498A of IPC would get attracted only against her husband or relative/relatives of her husband. Therefore, in the absence of a legal marriage as borne out from the records, no offence under Section 498A of IPC would get attracted against the partner of a woman or against the partner's relatives since the partner without a legal marriage would not occupy the status of husband.”
Senior Advocate K. Ramakumar appeared for the petitioner, while Senior Public Prosecutor Renjit George represented the respondents.
The petitioner pointed out that that in order to attract the offence under Section 498A, it was necessary that the act of cruelty was done by the husband or relatives of the husband. It was also argued that 'husband' meant the partner of a woman engaged in a legal marriage. According to the petitioner, the marriage between him and the wife was declared as null and void by the Family Court. Therefore, there is no legal marriage in the eye of law to place the petitioner as the husband as defined under Section 498A.
As per Section 5(i) of the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA), one of the conditions of marriage is that neither party has a spouse living at the time of the marriage. In this matter, the High Court noted that the Family Court had found that prior to the marriage between the petitioner and the complainant, the complainant was married to another person and the said marriage was subsisting at the time of the present marriage and thereby the marriage between the petitioner and the defacto complainant was declared as null and void.
Therefore, the Bench held, “Since the marriage has been declared as null and void and failure to satisfy the conditions of the marriage, then there is no legal marriage in the eye of law.”
The Bench observed, “Thus, it appears that in order to attract an offence punishable under Section 498(A) of IPC, the most essential ingredient is, subjecting a woman to cruelty by her husband or relative/relatives of the husband. The term ‘husband @ hubby’ means, a married man, woman’s partner in marriage. Thus, marriage is the constituent which takes the women’s partner to the status of her husband. Marriage means a marriage in the eye of law. Thus, without a legal marriage, if a man becomes a woman’s partner, he will not be covered by the term ‘husband’ for the purpose of Section 498(A) of IPC.”
Consequently, the Court held, “Here the petitioner never stood on the status of a husband at any point of time, since the marriage was null and void from the very beginning and the same was declared as such, subsequently. Therefore, the prosecution case to the effect that the petitioner committed offence under Section 498A read with 34 of IPC would not stand and accordingly, this matter would require quashment.”
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the petition.
Cause Title: X v. State of Kerala & Anr. (Neutral Citation: 2024:KER:79262)
Appearance:
Petitioner: Senior Advocate K.Ramakumar; Advocates S.M. Prasanth, T. Ramprasad Unni, T.H. Aravind, R.S. Aswini Sankar, G. Renjith and M. Manojkumar (Chelakkadan)
Respondents: Senior Public Prosecutor Renjit George