Marriage Of Minor Girl With Major Male Is An Act Of Cruelty To Seek Divorce U/S 13 HMA: Madhya Pradesh HC

The Court noted that in HMA the marriage in which the bride/groom is below 16 years old cannot be declared void or voidable under sections 11/ 12 of HMA and the District Court is a competent Court under the Act of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 to declare the marriage voidable in a petition filed for annulling the child marriage by decree of nullity.

The Court was hearing a First Appeal filed by the Appellant/wife under Section 28 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 against a judgment where the Additional District Judge dismissed the suit filed under Section 12 of HMA.

The bench of Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Binod Kumar Dwivedi observed, “It is an act of cruelty also, the marriage of a minor girl with a major male will cause mental as well as physical cruelty as she was not ready to perform the martial obligations, therefore, under Section 13 of HMA also she could have claimed the divorce from the husband / respondent.”

Advocate Sudeep Bhargava appeared for the Appellant and Advocate Anirudh Saxena appeared for the Respondent.

Brief Facts-

The appellant/wife approached the District Court by way of an application under Sections 11 and 12 of HMA seeking a decree of nullity of marriage as void or voidable on the ground that at the time of marriage, she was 15 years of age and the respondent concealed the fact that he has blindness in one eye. After marriage, she lived with her husband, but they did not consummate their marriage. Later, she came to know that the respondent cannot see from one eye and, therefore, claimed that on that ground, the marriage is either void or is liable to be declared as voidable.

The Court noted that in the present case, by ignorance of the law, the decree of declaration of marriage void was sought under Sections 5, 11 and 12 of HMA instead of Section 3 of PCMA, 2006.

The Court mentioned the Supreme Court decision in Bhagwati Alias Reena V/s Anil Choubey, (2017) 13 Supreme Court Cases 582 where according to the Court the SC held, “it is no more res integra that child marriage is voidable at the option of a minor spouse at the time of marriage and as per Section 12 of PCMA, 2006, only minor spouse has the right to seek annulment of the marriage.”

“On the doctrine of “pari materia”, reference to other statutes dealing with the same subject or forming part of the same system is a permissible aid to the construction of provisions in a statute.”, the Court added.

The Court set aside the impugned judgment and decree and declared the marriage null and void.

Accordingly, the Court disposed of the Writ Petition.

Cause Title: Komal v. Mayaram (Neutral Citation: 2024:MPHC-IND:24245)

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