The Calcutta High Court has recently said that if a person tells his live-in partner that He will marry her after divorcing his wife.But later expresses his inability to obtain divorce from his wife, he cannot be held guilty of cheating under section 417 of the Indian Penal Code. In 2015, a woman lodged a complaint with the Pragati Maidan police station in Kolkata that in February 2014 she had gone for a job interview at a hotel.There she met a hotel employee. The hotel staff gossiped with her and later asked for her number.The woman gave her phone number to him, after which both started talking to each other.After the conversation, both of them started meeting.In the first meeting, the accused person told the w oman that his relationship with his wife was not good and he also had a daughter.The accused person further said that he would divorce his wife and after divorce he would marry her.He asked the lady to stay in the live in, then the lady accepted to stay in the live in.After this the woman went to the flat of the accused person to stay with him.Both started living like husband and wife in the flat of the accused.The family members of the woman also knew about this relationship. The family members of the woman also wanted the woman to get married and settle down.After 1 year, the accused person went to Mumbai, where after meeting his wife, he changed his mind.After returning to Kolkata he told his live in partner that he will not divorce his wife. This will tarnish the reputation of her family and adversely affect the daughter.The live in partner woman felt cheated after hearing this from the mouth of the accused.After that the woman lodged an FIR in the police station.In this case, the lower court in Kolkata held the accused guilty and imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on the accused for the crime of cheating the woman.₹ 800000 was to be given to the victim woman and ₹ 200000 was to be deposited in the government treasury. The accused challenged this decision of the lower court in the High Court by filing a petition. A single judge bench of Justice Siddharth Roy Chowdhury, while hearing the petition, noted that cheating has been defined in Section 415 of the IPC which means dishonesty or cheating which is done knowingly.There's a clever link connecting the two.The court said that to establish this trick or deception, it needs to be proved that the accused had promised to marry the complainant in order to have sex with her.This statement of the complainant has been proved wrong. The court said that if a person does not hide about his married life, he makes it clear that he is the father of a girl child, then there is a state of uncertainty in such a relationship.,If the victim knowingly took the risk of entering into such relations, it cannot be considered as cheating.If there is no concealment of facts resulting in cheating, the offense of cheating as defined in section 415 of IPC cannot be proved. The court noted that the woman's decision to enter into a relationship with the accused was based solely on an express promise that he would first divorce his wife and then marry her,In this case the promise to marry was linked to the dissolution of the marriage but the fulfillment of the promise was not easy as the man could not take the decision of divorce on his own for which the consent of the estranged wife was required Or divorce was to be decided by the court so there was an element of uncertainty in such a relationship from the very beginning. The court said that the prosecution failed to prove that the accused had mala fide intention to exploit the victims.
Tags
cheating under section 417 IPC
dissolution of marriage
inability to get divorce
live -in partner
mala fide intention
marry her after divorce his wife
promise to marriage