Nullity of marriage under section 12
Gentleman 77
(Querist) 06 July 2018
This query is : Resolved
We are Reddys from Hyderabad and my son (28) married a Marwadi girl in Hyderabad as an arranged about one and half year ago. He works in Mumbai and resides in Andheri, Mumbai. The Girl after three months of marriage ran away from Mumbai with our gold and thereafter not living together. We have filed to nullify the marriage in Bandra family court on very strong grounds and we are hopeful to get a good order too.
Now the issue is that the family court is giving the hearing dates too long. Each hearing date is about three to four months. At this rate if the case goes on, it will take a minimum of three to four years to get it disposed off. The boy is young and the case is simple for divorce or nullity, and we require court to give early dates and expedite and dispose it off.
For quicker ( or rather reasonable) disposal of the matter with reasonable short hearing dates, what is that we can do. Can a petition to expedite the matter be filed in the same Bandra court or do we need to approach High Court to to dispose off the matter, say with in three months or so on merits or file a petition in CMMs court for early disposal. For kind advice please.
Father of the boy.
Vijay Raj Mahajan
(Expert) 06 July 2018
The best way to get earliest decision for dissolution of marriage in India is through divorce by mutual consent. As far your annulment case u/s 12 of the HMA, God knows how you can say its a strong case and you can get favourable decision in it. Annulment of marriage is most difficult to get unless there exist very strong evidence to prove the ground under which annulment is pleaded.
The case based on the fraud for annulment of marriage is still the most difficult to get favourable decision and decree of nullity. The wife stayed with the husband for 3 months and the consummation of marriage continued with the normal husband and wife relationship and after 3 months something happened and wife moved out of matrimonial home with gold. The gold you say was your, how come, did she steal your wife's gold or took the gold given to her at the time of marriage? If she took the gold given to her at the time of marriage, than it becomes her gold, her absolute property , her Istridhan , you have no right to claim it as your gold.
Other then this allegation you have not mentioned what case for annulment of marriage exists that make you so sure of getting favourable decision.
As far the time taken in Family Court, no doubt this case may take 3-4 years even more as there are number of such cases which the Family Court has to handle and there are limited staff to run numerous Family Courts in India. This was the reason I told you best is divorce by mutual consent, that you will never do as it will cost you too much to afford as you'll be forced to pay huge sum of permanent alimony and maintenance to wife which you may have not even dreamt in your life.
Gentleman 77
(Querist) 06 July 2018
Thank you Shri Vijay Raj Mahajan ji for your detailed reply touching main points of divorce. As you said, the mutual consent will cost us a lot for no fault of the boy. Already we feel they robbed us ( in terms of gold) and caused defame in our Reddy community. So definitely we don't want to go for money settlement.
We have filed lot of supporting evidence for nullifying the marriage. The girl after running away from Mumbai surfaced in Hyderabad after 5 days. Then she went to local Lok Adalat court ( Telangana Legal Services Authority) and filed a complaint that she was sick, not consummated marriage, not had sexual life, mentally ill and also feeling like to die.This forum is only for mutual settlement of cases. It was disposed off with out any settlement. All this happened with in 3 months of marriage. Also we have further phone recordings with her, her mother supporting all these. We have filed all these before the court.
In addition to the above, we had come to know that her elder sister was married in Hyderabad ( they are Hyd based marwadis and speak Telugu too) and divorced for a good money. Now mother has become trained lady in these matters to extract money and using the same technique again on us. Infact we accepted and arranged this married out of our broad mindedness. My son is physically disabled with cleft palate ( a birth deformity) with 40% and the girl is also with same yet bigger problem with 80%. We are reasonably well off people and they are ordinary people. Yet we came forward and taken this girl with out even a single rupee from her side.
Whatever it may be, now we want to expedite it. The family court is expressing us that they do not give hearing dates any thing less than three months. This is not a complicated matter of separation in terms of Kids separation or property division or alimony to be given.Can we approach High Court or CMM court in Mumbai for a direction to expedite the matter and dispose off.
P. Venu
(Expert) 07 July 2018
Your lengthy explanation only suggests that there are deeper issues. However, it may not count as much as court proceedings are concerned. The best course is MCD, as already suggested.
