The Allahabad High Court recently reaffirmed that a declaration of the marital status of parties is a matter that goes to the very heart of social order and can be made only by a competent court, through a proper proceeding under Section 11 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. The Court underscored that such declaration must arise from a judicial process between the parties, satisfying all legal requirements, rather than being treated as ancillary or informal.
In the case under consideration, the facts involved a woman who had earlier married a Muslim man by Nikah in 2013, and later, in 2020, entered into a Hindu marriage with the petitioner. Their marriage was solemnized despite the first marriage not yet having been dissolved, and the divorce from the first marriage was finalized only in 2021. Subsequently, the petitioner husband moved an application under Section 11 seeking a declaration that the Hindu marriage was void ab initio. A mediation process had also taken place in concurrent criminal proceedings, in which the parties agreed to withdraw those criminal actions and cooperate in the Section 11 proceeding. However, the Family Court dismissed the Section 11 application, leaving the marital status of the parties in legal ambiguity. A recall petition followed, with challenging the dismissal on the grounds that valid determination under Section 11 had not been rendered.
The High Court observed that Section 5(i) of the Hindu Marriage Act mandates that at the time of entering into a Hindu marriage, neither party must have a living spouse. Since the petitioner’s marriage to the respondent was entered into while the respondent’s earlier marriage was extant, that marriage was, by law, void from its inception in terms of Section 11 read with Section 5(i). A marriage invalid ab initio implies that it never legally existed and does not generate rights or obligations which are contingent on marital status.
The Court also referred to Supreme Court precedents such as Yamunabai Anantrao Adhav v. Anantrao Shivram Adhav and M. M. Malhotra v. Union of India, in which the declarations of void marriage were upheld when a prior marriage was undisputed. The High Court held that the court which entertains an application under Section 11 must issue a complete and effective decision on the marital status, and only then can the legal consequences follow. Because the records of the Family Court were not before it, the High Court refrained from interfering with its order, and directed the parties to approach the appropriate court to get the Section 11 application decided in line with law.
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