Kerala High Court holds that a couple living together under a marriage agreement are not husband and wife.

The Kerala High Court has acquitted a man and his family who were convicted under Section 498A IPC for cruelty against a deceased woman on the finding that the parties were living together as husband and wife, based on a marriage agreement and their marriage was not solemnized.
 
The deceased wife and the 1st revision petitioner eloped and they were living together as husband and wife based on a marriage agreement. Due to alleged ill-treatment from the man's family, the deceased attempted suicide by self-immolation using kerosene and succumbed to her burn injuries. The court of Assistant Sessions Judge convicted the man and family under Sections 498A, 306 IPC and the convictions were upheld by the Appellate Court. The revision petitioners thus approached the High Court.
 
The Court on appreciation of the facts of the case observed thus:
 
“In the case on hand, since the marriage between the 1st revision petitioner and deceased Chandrika was not solemnised, and they started living together on the basis of a marriage agreement, which has no legal sanctity in the eye of law, they have to be treated as persons in live-in-relation, and they were not husband and wife, in order to attract an offence punishable under Section 498A of IPC. So, the trial court as well as the appellate court went wrong in finding the revision petitioners guilty under Section 498A of IPC and sentencing them for that offence.”
 
“When there is some form of marriage either religious or customary which has the colour of a legal marriage, then also, the woman can seek protection under Section 498A of IPC though later, for some reason as mentioned above, that marriage is found to be invalid in the eyes of law. But, when there was no solemnisation of marriage at all, and only live in relationship on the basis of a marriage agreement, then the woman cannot seek shelter under Section 498A of IPC, saying that they were holding out to the society as man and wife by their long cohabitation.”
 

Narayanan v State of Kerala