Legal Update: Telangana High Court Dissolves Marriage Over Falsified Age on Matrimonial Portal
The Telangana High Court has granted a decree of divorce to a woman after establishing that her husband, a bank manager, misrepresented his age on a matrimonial website. The court ruled that the false information induced the woman into the marriage under mistaken beliefs regarding both his age and traditional horoscope compatibility.
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The division bench, comprising Justices K. Lakshman and B.R. Madhusudhan Rao, set aside a previous order by the Ranga Reddy Family Court, which had initially dismissed the wife’s petition for annulment.
Case Background: The Seven-Year Misrepresentation
The couple entered into an arranged marriage on August 24, 2018, after initially connecting through a digital matrimonial portal.
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The Declared Profiling: On the website, the husband listed his date of birth as February 9, 1981. Believing this data to be accurate, the woman’s family performed standard horoscope matching procedures and agreed to the union.
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The Discovery: The discrepancy came to light exclusively during the formal marriage registration process. Official documents revealed the husband’s actual date of birth was February 9, 1974—making him seven years older than initially claimed.
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The Legal Argument: The wife, noting her family’s orthodox values regarding astrological compatibility, contended that the deliberate age misrepresentation resulted in a fundamentally flawed horoscope match, constituting fraud under the law.
The wife initially sought an annulment under Section 12(1)(c) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1951, which provides grounds for voidability if consent to a marriage is obtained via fraud or misrepresentation concerning a material fact about the spouse.
Court Findings and Mutual Agreement
During the appellate hearings, both the husband and wife submitted affidavits explicitly stating that they were unwilling to continue the marital relationship.
The High Court bench observed that the emotional and structural breakdown of the marriage was absolute:
“Both the appellant and the respondent are not interested to lead the marital life. Therefore, there is no possibility of reunion.”
Settlement of Ancillary Disputes
While both parties agreed to dissolve the bond, several underlying financial and legal disputes remained:
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Criminal and Domestic Violence Cases: The wife expressed a willingness to withdraw all pending domestic violence and criminal proceedings against the husband, conditional upon a formal settlement and the return of her gold ornaments.
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Property & Alimony Rulings: The husband agreed not to contest the appeal under those terms. However, the High Court declined to adjudicate the specific distribution of ornaments or monetary claims within this appeal, categorizing them as contested questions of fact that must be resolved through distinct legal forums.
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Permanent Alimony: The bench also declined to grant permanent alimony at this juncture, clarifying that a separate, formal application under Section 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act is a mandatory prerequisite for such financial relief.
In its final order, the High Court allowed the appeal, granted the divorce decree, and extended liberty to the wife to independently pursue her claims regarding alimony and the return of dowry ornaments before the appropriate lower courts.
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