The Bombay High Court recently upheld the orders of a Family Court which dissolved a marriage between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman after noting that the man had fraudulently obtained the signatures of the woman on marriage documents.
The HC noted that the man had initially proposed to the woman but she refused to marry him and thus, he prepared forged documents.
A bench of Justices Atul Chandurkar and Govind Sanap was hearing a plea filed by one Sameer Shaikh challenging the orders of a Family Court in Amravati. The family court had dissolved his marriage with one Rashmi Dighade.
As per Rashmi, she was friends with Sameer's sister and used to often visit their house, during one of her visits, Sameer tried to force himself on her and even proposed to marry her. She, however, turned down the proposal.
Later, Sameer's sister informed him that Rashmi needed to apply for her driving license. He offered to help her and took some of her documents. However, after getting a copy of the licence, he didn't return her the documents and subsequently used the same and applied for marriage.
He again obtained her signatures on some documents and after a few months confronted her and her sister and told her that they are now a married couple.
Rashmi accordingly moved a plea before a court seeking to quash the marriage certificate. The family court after considering the facts of the case dissolved the marriage and removed the "married" status of Rashmi to "maiden" one.
Having considered the facts of the case, the HC bench led by Justice Chandurkar upheld the decision of the Family Court. It noted that the material on record proved that the documents claimed to be prepared by Sameer were fake. The judges, accordingly, upheld the Family Court's decision.
