Marriage Based on Incorrect Horoscope Due to False Birth Details, Telangana HC Grants Divorce [Read Judgment]

Telangana: The Telangana High Court has granted a decree of divorce to a woman after finding that her husband had misrepresented his date of birth on a matrimonial website, resulting in a horoscope match based on incorrect particulars and an arranged marriage founded on a mistaken belief.

Allowing the wife’s appeal, a Division Bench of the High Court set aside the Family Court’s order dismissing her divorce petition and dissolved the marriage solemnised on August 24, 2018.

According to the wife, the parties became acquainted through the matrimonial website telugumatrimony.com, where the husband had represented his date of birth as February 9, 1981. However, his actual date of birth was February 9, 1974, making him seven years older than disclosed. The wife, who belonged to an orthodox family and considered horoscope compatibility an important factor in marriage, had the horoscopes matched based on the incorrect date of birth provided by the husband. Believing that they belonged to a similar age group and were both government employees of comparable status, she agreed to the marriage.

She later discovered the husband’s actual date of birth in November 2018 while registering the marriage at the Sub-Registrar’s Office in Rajendranagar, where official records revealed the discrepancy.

Contending that her consent to the marriage had been obtained through fraud, the wife approached the Family Court seeking annulment of the marriage under Section 12(1)(c) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, which renders a marriage voidable where consent is obtained by misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact concerning a spouse. However, after examining the oral and documentary evidence on record, the Family Court dismissed her petition. Aggrieved by the decision, the wife filed the present appeal before the Telangana High Court.

During the pendency of the appeal, both parties filed affidavits stating that they were unwilling to continue the marital relationship. The husband consented to the dissolution of the marriage, subject to the wife withdrawing a pending criminal complaint and proceedings initiated under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act. The wife, in turn, stated that she was willing to withdraw those cases upon receiving a full and final financial settlement and the return of her gold ornaments.

The husband, however, maintained that the ornaments claimed by the wife were not in his possession and asserted that she was instead in possession of seven tulas of gold belonging to him, which he was willing to relinquish to facilitate a settlement.

The Court found that the parties’ mutual unwillingness to continue the marriage, coupled with the factual backdrop of age misrepresentation, warranted allowing the appeal. However, it did not adjudicate upon the financial disputes, noting that the settlement amount and gold ornaments were disputed questions of fact that had neither been pleaded nor proved before the Family Court and had arisen only during the pendency of the appeal.

Addressing the issue of permanent alimony, the Court held that relief under Section 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, cannot be granted automatically in matrimonial proceedings and requires the filing of a separate application.

In reaching this conclusion, the Court endorsed the view taken by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Kuldeep Rai v. Smt. Rita. Accordingly, while dissolving the marriage, the Court granted the wife liberty to pursue appropriate legal remedies for the recovery of her gold ornaments and for permanent alimony before the competent forum, including in the domestic violence proceedings already pending between the parties.

Case: xxxxxxxx v. xxxxxxxx (F.C.A. No. 226 of 2024)

[Read Judgment]