A friend of my mine is in a bind and seeks advice as to how to come out of a serious and complex situation he has got into due to naive hasty action.
A year before taking premature retirement from the Government service my friend got divorced after his wife initiated and filed a mutual consent divorce petition. My friend has two children from this marriage which lasted for 21 years. The divorce was amicable and till this day their relationship is cordial and both children are being jointly taken care off.
Just few month before voluntary retirement (almost 10 months after the mutual consent divorce ) my friend met a lady on a social website.The lady was working in another city in a private company. The two felt they were meant for each other and decided to get married but the lady deferred the matter saying “she would have to take her family into confidence before they got married as per Hindu law”.
Meanwhile just one month before my friend was to retire from Government service he visited this lady’s city and two of them went to a temple and in absence of any witness took marriage vows. However, no “Saat Pheras” were taken. The friend on his return after this “so called marriage” submitted this lady’s name as his spouse in the retirement forms, which were subsequently recorded in his personal dossier.
After 10-12 days of this “so called marriage” the lady travelled to my friend’s city and stayed at his residence for four days and then both visited my friend’s sister place in another city and stayed there for two days and thereafter the lady went back to her city. The “so called marriage” was never consummated even though they had stayed together for 7 days.
During the lady’s visit to my friend’s place a joint pension account declaring her as “spouse” was also opened in a Bank. This was done to complete the voluntary retirement formality since my friend was to draw Government pension after the retirement. As part of retirement formality a dependent identity card was also issued in the lady’s name, which was given to the lady by my friend. All this was done in good faith by my friend as he was assured that within few months both of them would undergo proper marriage as per Hindu law.
After three months of the “so called marriage” the two of them met twice for few hours over lunch during my friend’s visit to her city. In this intervening period they had kept in touch over phone and emails. Sometime after the last meeting the lady changed her contact numbers and also stopped responding to my friend’s emails.It is now almost 8 years and they have not been in touch in any manner. Unfortunately due to my friend’s stupidity he did not find out about her address and other contact details including the company in which she was employed before proceeding with the “so called marriage”. Her parents address declared in the Government forms when my friend nominated her as his spouse was of another city and almost some 25 years old (nobody was able to provide her new address).
All these years my friend had been trying to locate her and to make her agree to formally terminate their relationship arising out of the “so called marriage”.
Recently my friend has located her through some source and has managed to obtain her office address. Further inquiries have also revealed that this lady continues to work in the same company and has all along maintained “single” marital status in her personal record held with the company.
In order to come out of this peculiar situation my friend wishes to meet this lady at her official address and ask her to commit on paper that although they both had intentions to get married as per Hindu law before they undertook there “so called marriage” in a temple 8 years back they never went ahead with it. Also my friend would like to retrieve the dependent identity card from her, which is still in her possession.
The friend is of the opinion that once he gets this document signed by the lady then he can approach Court for proceeding with “Nullity of marriage under Section 5 of the Hindu Marriage Act” on grounds of desertion. However, my friend is apprehensive about approaching the lady as there is a possibility that she may demand money before agreeing to sign the document. This feeling is due to the fact that she had made my friend spend a considerable sum of money on clothes and jewellery during their earlier association.
My friend intends to apply for removal of the lady’s name from the Government records as his “spouse” and also return the dependent identity card once he obtains Court order declaring his “so called marriage” to this lady as “Null”. Thereafter my friend would approach the Bank and request for removal of the lady’s name from the Bank’s joint pension account.
Please advise whether my friend’s approach to resolve this issue is legally correct and tenable in a Court of Law. Further, whether my friend can approach the Court for declaring his marriage with the lady as “Null” under section 5 of the Hindu marriage Act. Also what precautions he should take while approaching the lady for obtaining her signature on the document.
In case my friend’s approach is legally incorrect then please advise how to proceed to untangle this issue so that his marital status as “divorced” can be restored in the Government records.
