The Party Calling Off Marriage At The Last Moment Will Have To Incur All The Expense: SC

Wedding fixed six months back, engagement function done, marriage ceremonies on the cards next month, all bookings made for the venue, catering, decoration- This all sounds like a perfect sequence of events but what to do, if the marriage is called off at last stage by either of the parties. This is not a rare incident and many of us or at least, our acquaintances might have gone through such a situation. Emotionally, it is a very disturbing situation for sure, but then there are practical difficulties as well. What about the financial losses incurred by the party which is at the losing end? All their lifetime savings go to drain for a wedding which never happens.

Supreme Court decision, that the party who breaks the alliance has to pay up for the costs incurred, has come as a sigh of relief for the victims in such situations.

This ruling came into force after SC ruled in favour of an aggrieved girl from Thane, whose marriage was called off and penalised the Delhi boy to reimburse the cost incurred during the engagement party by her. The girl’s family had filed a case under Section 420 (cheating) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the boy and his family in Thane. The father and son sought anticipatory bail. After mediation proceedings, they were asked to pay Rs 1.50 lakh to the girl’s parents.

On the positive side, the decision is not gender biased because it is not always from the man’s side that the wedding is called off. There have been instances when the girl’s family called off the wedding for various reasons. In such cases, the decision to pay for the costs applies to the party who cancels the marriage which is totally justified.

But there is a flip-side to this as well since there can be genuine cases where a person has unknowingly entered into a matrimonial alliance with someone who’s a cheat or mentally unstable or for other reasons. It will be unfortunate for the person who has to bear the cost for breaking off the alliance in such a situation.