How can a Marriage be Annulled?
Usually, we write about what's happening in the news. Today's story is based on an episode of Friends. What's it about?
Today’s edition of Legalease is inspired by a student of ours. She told us about how pop-culture introduced her to so many ideas of the law. In fact, the first thing that she was planning to do after completing our boot camp was draft a roommate agreement, just like Sheldon did in The Big Bang Theory.
Speaking to her gave me an idea.
We decided to take an episode from Friends to write about annulments. In Season 6 of the show, Ross marries Rachel after a night of drunken revelry. Neither of them remembers the marriage, so they decide to get it annulled.
The question we answer today is – what does Indian law say about annulments?
Annulment Versus Divorce
An annulment declares a marriage to be invalid from its very beginning. A divorce, on the other hand, is when the law recognises the marriage, and then holds that it has ended. This is the fundamental difference.
Annulment is a court mandated procedure in India. What this means is that even if you meet the criteria for annulment, the marriage will continue till a court steps in to annul it.
What’s the criteria? Well, different religions have laid down different rules. But here are some of the common grounds –
(a) underage marriages;
(b) marriages involving parties with serious mental health concerns;
(c) marriages where consent was obtained by fraud; and,
(d) marriages which have not been consummated.
Why Mental Health?
The relationship between annulments and mental health is interesting. The rationale is that if someone enters into a marriage without truly understanding the consequences, they should be able to get out of it.
But judicial precedent makes this complicated. You see, it’s almost impossible to identify a person’s state of mind in the past. For instance, if one partner is found to be schizophrenic a year into marriage, courts struggle to determine if such partner was symptomatic at the time of entering into the marriage.
Therefore, courts have often taken the view that if such a determination cannot be made, then the marriage won’t be nullified. Courts have also held that grave mental health concerns are similar to serious physical health issues (like diabetes) and that they could be addressed through proper care.
Ultimately, obtaining a decree of nullity from a court is largely based on demonstrable facts.
Love Jihad Strikes Back
Remember how we wrote about the love jihad laws? Turns out, annulment also plays a role there.
These controversial laws provide for imprisonment if someone uses marriage as a garb for religious conversion. They also, however, provide for the marriage to be annulled. It’s the same concept. Essentially, the marriage will be deemed to not have existed if the state thinks that it resulted in forced conversion.
Let’s close the loop by looking at one final question – would an Indian court grant Ross and Rachel a decree of nullity for a drunken mistake? We can’t say for sure. The court would have to look into the complete circumstances of the marriage.
If you have an opinion on this, we would love to hear it.
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