LEELAMMA Vs. DILIP KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) O.P. No. 1074/87 is a petition for declaration of nullity of marriage, while O.P. No. 1470/92 is a petition for restitution of conjugal rights.

(2.) Petitioners in OP 1074/87 and OP 1470/92 will be referred as the wife and husband, in that order hereinafter. The parties met in December, 1985 and the wife consented to marry the husband, in the belief that he was a Christian, born of Christian parents, belonging to an ancient family, that belief having been induced by the husband by making a representation to that effect. The parties were married on 2-3-1986 at the St. Sebastian's Church, Thodupuzha according to the rites of the Syrian Catholic community.

(3.) After marriage, they lived together for a while at the wife's place, and then moved to the husband's parental home. It was only then that the wife realised that the husband was an Ezhava, baptised into Christianity recently, and that his parents were Ezhavas and not Christians, as he had represented. The wife would say that the husband had not only practiced fraud on her, but had also misappropriated her jewels. Not content with these, he had also persuaded her to have sexual intercourse with his friends, says the wife. She petitions this court for a declaration that the marriage is a nullity, by reason of fraud practiced on her to obtain her consent.