‘Hindu Marriage Act can be invoked if both parties are Hindus’

THE HIGH COURT UPHELD THE FAMILY COURT ORDER AND SAID THAT THE APPELLANT, A PARSI, COULD NOT INVOKE PROVISIONS OF THE HINDU MARRIAGE ACT

MUMBAI: Provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act can be invoked for seeking any relief in a matrimonial matter, only if both the parties to the marriage are Hindus, the Bombay high court held on Monday.

The division bench of justice VK Tahilramani and justice AR Joshi held that a Parsi cannot invoke provisions of the Act to seek relief against his Hindu wife and dismissed an appeal preferred by a 38-year-old Parsi challenging rejection of his divorce petition by the family court at Bandra.

The husband claimed that though he was Parsi by religion at the time of marriage, in 1999, and continues to profess the Zoroastrian faith, the marriage was performed as per Hindu Vedic rites, as his wife was a Hindu and continued to profess her religion.

The husband claimed that the wife left the matrimonial home in 2006 and five years later he preferred the petition seeking decree to nullity the marriage. He approached the high court after his petition was dismissed by the family court in February 2014.

The high court upheld the family court order and said that the husband could not invoke provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act, which also requires both spouses to be Hindus even at the time of filing of the petition before the family court, except when the cause of action arises out of a spouse ceases to be a Hindu because of conversion to other religion.

Besides, the high court also found fault with the husband in approaching the court belatedly.

“No reason is pointed out by the appellant (husband) to show that what compelled him to suddenly realise that he belonged to a different religion and therefore, the marriage should be declared a nullity,” the bench observed. This, the judges felt, showed that the husband was trying to take advantage of his own wrong. MUMBAI: A gang dealing in counterfeit currency was arrested by the Bhandup police on Tuesday and counterfeit notes with a facevalue of Rs1.70 lakh were seized from them in the Bhaktipada market area in Bhandup (West).

The police have traced the roots of the racket to West Bengal (WB) and are interrogating the trio to trace the kingpin. Police have not revealed the names of the three arrested, as further links in the racket have been traced to Navi Mumbai.

“The trio used to buy the counterfeit currency from a man at Howrah in WB. The trio used to pay the man Rs50,000 in exchange for counterfeit notes with a face value of Rs1 lakh,” said Pratap Chavan, senior inspector, Bhandup police station. They had brought Rs2lakh from West Bengal, of which they had spent Rs30,000.

The police claim they were tipped off about the trio following which they were taken into custody. In order to circulate the counterfeit currency, they used to pay fake Rs500 notes to buy vegetables of around Rs100, Chavan said.

The special squad of the police station were patrolling when they were tipped off. The accused were found with Rs50,000 in fake notes while the rest was seized from their room in Bhandup, said the officer.

The police have seized Rs100 notes of Rs1,000 denomination and 140 notes of Rs500 denomination. The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code section 489B (using as genuine, forged or counterfeit currency-notes or bank-notes) and 489C (possession of forged or counterfeit currency notes or bank-notes). “The seizure is not related to the Assembly elec tions but we are investigating fur ther,” said Chavan.