Marriage related offences

 Marriage related offences section 493 – 498A

Section 493 – speaks about cohabitation by deceitful assurance of marriage
When there is a sole motive of a man to cohabit with the woman , and in order to  fulfil that motive , states false hopes to the woman  , fraudulently assures the woman that they are married to one another and on the basis of that belief , cohabits with the woman.

For example – Justin , a 23 year old boy , assures a 23 year old female that they are married to each other and on that assure and false belief , cohabits with her . (existence of legal marriage is absent )
It is a non-cognizable , non-bailable , non-compoundable offence and any magistrate of first class can conduct the trial .
In this case ,Justin is committing an offence and shall be punished under section 493 .
He shall be punished for imprisonment up to 10 years and fine as well .

Section – 494 deals with bigamy , any married man or woman can be accused of bigamy
Bigamy means dual marriage
Under Hindu Marriage Act , if a married person without dissolving the first marriage and in the existence of first marriage , marries again , the second marriage stands void and it is an offence of bigamy .If the person has not heard from his/her partner for a continuous year of 7 years , then the second marriage won’t stand void .
For example – Kohli got married to Dia in the year 2000. Kohli in the year 2004 marries a woman named Siana without divorcing Dia . This is an offence of bigamy ,also the second marriage stands void .
It is a non- cognizable , bailable offence and the offender can be punished for imprisonment up to 7 years and fine .

In the case of
Prasanna kumar v Dhanalaksmi
Prasana kumar got married twice , but had given prior notice to the girl that his divorce case in pending in the court , so , this wont amount to bigamy.

Section 495 speaks about bigamy by concealment of former marriage
It deals with dual marriage by concealment of facts,
If a person commits an offence of bigamy and as well as does not knowledge the 2nd marriage spouse about the former marriage .It is a non-cognizable , bailable offence and any magistrate of first class can conduct the trial.
The person shall be punished for imprisonment upto 10 years and fine
The punishment of imprisonment is higher than that offence committed under section 494 as it is dual marriage along with hiding truth of former marriage from 2nd marriage spouse.

Section 496 deals with fraudulent marriage
If a person marries A then marries B being well aware that it won’t be accepted lawfully or be considered a lawful marriage and he himself won’t live with B a conjugal life . If A person has the intention to fraud or gain something out of the second marriage

It is a non-cognizable and bailable offence, any magistrate of first class can conduct the trial

The person shall be punished for imprisonment up to 7 years and fine

Section 497 was removed

Section 498 Says if a person takes away any woman, being well aware of the fact that she’s a wife of another man with an intention to cohabitate or intercourse with her.

It is a non-cognizable and bailable offence and any magistrate can conduct the trial.

The person shall be punished for imprisonment up to 2 years and fine

The compound is only available if it is given by the husband of the woman and the woman.

A lot of crimes were reported under dowry harassment or harassment from husband and husband’s side of the family

Section 498(A) says if the husband or husband‘s family treat the wife unethically , Causes grave injury harasses her mentally or physically, give life threats or health threats if the demand for dowry or any property or any valuables demanded from husband or husband side of the family has not been fulfilled.