PRIYANKA DAS Vs. SUJIT KUMAR DAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appeal is preferred against the decision of the Family Court, Calcutta, in Matrimonial Petition No.50 of 1998. The suit was filed for a declaration that the marriage between the petitioner and the respondent, i.e., the appellant and the respondent herein was null and void. That prayer has been dismissed by the Family Court. However, it has granted a decree of divorce and the marriage solemnized on 18th December, 1996 has been dissolved.

(2.) The brief facts giving rise to the present appeal are as follows: The appellant, Priyanka Das while still a minor, had been lured out of her school by the respondent and had been kidnapped by him with the help of his friends. She was driven away to a place where she found that arrangements had been made by the respondent for solemnizing their marriage. After the rituals she was made to sign some blank papers. After the marriage was solemnized as per the Hindu customs and rituals on 18th December, 1996, the couple lived in Siliguri for a few days and returned to Kolkata on 23rd December, 1996. Priyanka was rescued with the help of the police on 25th December, 1996. Priyanka's mother Sonali Das then filed the present suit before the Family Court on her behalf as Priyanka was still a minor. The main contentions raised in the plaint were that the bride and bridegroom were within the prohibited degrees of relationship and therefore the marriage was null and void. It was also pleaded that Priyanka being a minor at the time of marriage had been coerced into the marriage. Besides this it was pleaded that Priyanka had been compelled to marry the respondent under duress. It was also pleaded that the marriage took place because of the fraud perpetrated by the respondent who was her mother's cousin and who Priyanka regarded as her uncle.

(3.) A written statement was filed by the respondent Sujit Kumar Das contending that the parents of Priyanka Das had consented to the marriage and that he had not in any manner compelled Priyanka to marry him. It is further pleaded that although initially the mother of Priyanka, Sonali Das was to participate in the marriage ceremony, she went back on her word and filed a police complaint against the respondent and thereafter the present suit. Significantly, the respondent has not denied the fact that the appellant's mother was his first cousin or that the appellant was a minor when they got married.