Bengaluru: Karnataka high court has granted relief to a govt school teacher by annulling his marriage, observing that “consent for marriage obtained by staring down the barrel of a police complaint is no consent at all”.
He alleged that the woman then threatened to file a police complaint and subsequently lodged one on Sept 10, 2010, alleging offences including cheating and deceitful cohabitation on the promise of marriage.
It can also arise from calculated conduct, such as filing a police complaint to use the law as a coercive device to obtain consent that would otherwise not have been given, the bench said. After learning of her previous marriage, the teacher said he opposed the proposal. A division bench comprising Justice DK Singh and Justice H Shanthi Bhushan made the observation in an order passed last month, holding that fraud in matrimonial law need not always involve an explicit false representation.
On June 25, 2011, the teacher approached a family court seeking a declaration that the marriage was null and void, alleging fraud and coercion. The family court dismissed the teacher’s petition on April 11, 2018, observing that he had willingly married her.
It also said the family court had relied on her contentions and the marriage registration document without determining whether the couple had lived together as husband and wife. The two married five days after the FIR was registered but did not live together. He then approached the high court. The division bench noted that the woman had not cross-examined the teacher despite his specific allegation of fraud.