Wrong Date Of Birth In Matrimonial Profile Leading To Horoscope Mismatch Amounts To Fraud: Telangana HC Grants Divorce

The Telangana High Court has granted divorce to a woman who alleged that her husband had fraudulently misrepresented his age on a matrimonial website, resulting in an incorrect horoscope match and an arranged marriage solemnised under a mistaken belief regarding compatibility.A Division Bench of Justice K. Lakshman and Justice B.R. Madhusudhan Rao observed that the husband had furnished a wrong date of birth on the matrimonial portal, which led the wife and her family to obtain horoscope matching based on incorrect particulars. Allowing the appeal, the Court dissolved the marriage by granting a decree of divorce.Importantly, the Bench observed: “The aforesaid facts would reveal that both the appellant and the respondent are not interested to lead the marital life. Therefore, there is no possibility of reunion. The appellant/wife is seeking full and final settlement amount and also return of gold.”The Court was dealing with an appeal filed by the wife challenging the order of the Family Court, Rangareddy, which had dismissed her petition under Section 12(1)(c) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 seeking a decree of nullity on the ground of fraud.The appellant-wife contended that the marriage between the parties was solemnised on 24 August 2018 through an online matrimonial platform, “telugumatrimony.com”. According to her, the respondent-husband had represented his date of birth as 09.02.1981, whereas his actual date of birth was 09.02.1974.She argued that since she belonged to an orthodox family which believed in horoscope matching, her family had proceeded with horoscope verification based on the incorrect date of birth furnished by the respondent. She claimed that she agreed to the marriage believing that both parties belonged to the “same age group”, were Government servants, and had matching horoscopes.The wife further stated that she came to know of the respondent's actual date of birth only when the parties approached the Sub-Registrar's office for registration of marriage in November 2018. According to her, the respondent was in fact nine years older than her and had “played fraud and cheated her”.Before the High Court, it was also brought on record that criminal proceedings and domestic violence proceedings instituted by the wife against the husband were pending. The Bench noted that a criminal case registered at Rajendranagar Police Station had culminated in a charge-sheet and was pending before the Additional Metropolitan Magistrate. Proceedings under the Domestic Violence Act were also pending.The wife stated that she was willing to withdraw the criminal and domestic violence proceedings subject to receipt of a “fair and reasonable full and final settlement amount” and return of gold ornaments. On the other hand, the husband contended that the wife was in possession of seven tulas of gold belonging to him, which he was willing to forego, while also seeking withdrawal of the pending criminal cases.The High Court observed that these claims regarding settlement amount and gold ornaments involved “disputed questions of fact” which could not be adjudicated in the present appeal, particularly since such claims had neither been pleaded nor proved before the Family Court.On the issue of permanent alimony, the Bench clarified that a separate application under Section 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act was mandatory.Rejecting the contention that permanent alimony could be granted without a specific application, the Court observed that a bare reading of Section 25 clearly indicated that a separate application is required to be made for seeking permanent alimony. Accordingly, the High Court allowed the appeal, set aside the Family Court's order dated 03 May 2024, and dissolved the marriage by a decree of divorce. However, liberty was granted to the wife to work out her remedies regarding return of gold ornaments and permanent alimony before the appropriate forum, including in the pending domestic violence proceedings.Case Title: XXXXX v. XXXXXCase No.: F.C.A. No.226 of 2024Appearance: Mrs. Pushpinder Kaur, learned counsel representing Mr. G. Durga Charan, for the appellant; Mr. G. Ramakrishna, learned counsel representing Mr. Pradeep Kumar Lahot, for the respondent.Click Here To Read/Download Order

Wrong Date Of Birth In Matrimonial Profile Leading To Horoscope Mismatch Amounts To Fraud: Telangana HC Grants Divorce

Ananya Tangri

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Wrong Date Of Birth In Matrimonial Profile Leading To Horoscope Mismatch Amounts To Fraud: Telangana HC Grants Divorce

Ananya Tangri

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Ananya Tangri

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