Cohabitation Caused by a Man Deceitfully Inducing a Belief of Lawful Marriage - Section 493
There are various provisions in Indian Kanoon stating punishments for various wrongful acts committed by the wrongdoers. The punishments for the criminal offences are given in the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The Constitution of India provides the rights of the people. The Indian Penal Code states the punishment for an infringement of these rights of the innocent people and for the offenders doing criminal acts by misusing their powers to dominate the victims and violate their rights. Chapter xx of the Indian Penal Code deals with the offences related to the marriage. This chapter deals with offences such as Cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage, marrying again during the lifetime of the marriage of husband or wife, adultery, concealment of former marriage from a person you are marrying now, marriage ceremony not done lawfully and detaining or taking away a married woman with criminal intent. Sections 493 to 498 of the IPC deal with provisions related to marriage. In this blog, we will discuss Section 493 of IPC. Section 493 of IPC This section deals with provisions and punishments of offence relating to marriage such as Cohabitation caused by a man who by deceit induces a belief of lawful marriage. The explanation of this section is Every man who by deceit causes any woman who is not lawfully married to him to believe that she is lawfully married to him and to cohabit or have sexual intercourse with him in that belief. This man will be liable under section 493 IPC. Punishment under Section 493  The commitment of an offence under this section leads to imprisonment for a term which may extend up to 10 years and shall also be liable to a fine. Nature of Section 493 Offences under this section are non-cognizable which means offences, for which a police officer cannot arrest the accused without a warrant and cannot start an investigation without the permission of the court.    Offences under section 493 are non-bailable offences i.e the grant of bail is not a matter of right. But here law gives special consideration in favor of granting bail where the accused is under sixteen, a woman, sick or infirm or if the court is satisfied that the bail should be given rather than refusing it. These offences are non-compoundable offences that means which cannot be compounded they can only be quashed. These offences are not mentioned in the list under Section 320 of CrPC. In non-compoundable offences, no monetary compromise is allowed. Full trial is conducted and the end result will be either acquittal or conviction. IPC 493 can be tried in the Court of Magistrate of First Class by the Trial Court- Court of Session. The Ministry concerned with this offence would be the Ministry of Home Affairs and the department in this offence is the Department of Internal Security.
Ingredients of Section 493
There must be a deceit caused by man.
To induce a belief of lawful marriage.
There should be cohabitation or sexual intercourse with him in that belief.
Some Famous Judgements:
Arun singh v/s State of UP, 2020
In this case the Respondent’s daughter marriage was fixed with the Appellant (Accused) and was scheduled. After that they started going for outings together. One day the Appellant induced Jyoti to the room and established a physical relationship with her. Later on, he started demanding a dowry of Rs. 5 lakhs. This Complaint was made in Mahila Thana but no action was taken. On coming to know that the marriage of the appellant was settled with some other girl for handsome of money the FIR was lodged under Section 493 of IPC and Section 3 and 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act against the Appellant.
The Court passed the judgment that the ingredients of Section 493 IPC are missing. The allegations do not even cull out any inducement of belief in the victim i.e Jyoti that she is lawfully married to the appellant and on account of this deceitful misstatement, the victim i.e Jyoti cohabitated with the accused. So it was declared that the allegations made in FIR do not fall within Section 493 of IPC.
Ravinder Kaur v/s Anil Kumar, 2015
A man obtained the ex-parte divorce decree and did not inform his wife about it. Due to this matrimonial relationship ended and the wife was not known about this fact. She continued to cohabit with him as she thought that she was still married to him. The wife came to know about this fact when her husband married another woman.
The court held that it cannot be said that the husband deceived his wife to believe that she is lawfully married to him and held that the man is not liable for the offence under Section 493 of IPC. The judgment should be criticized as it was properly known that the husband has deceived his wife by not informing her about the ex-parte decree and she thought that she was lawfully married to him and cohabitated with him.
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How can you file/defend your case for the IPC Section 493 offence?
Since Section 493 IPC is a Non-Cognizable Offence, the police cannot arrest the accused without a warrant as well as cannot start an investigation without the permission of the Court. So the police should refer the informant to the Magistrate as he is incompetent to investigate a non-cognizable case. If the Magistrate is of the opinion that the case should be investigated then he will direct the police officer to start investigating the matter.
The police will then investigate the matter and might arrest the victim if they find enough proof. If no evidence is found the case will not proceed.
On investigation, a charge sheet would be prepared by a police officer in which he will mention all the records.The case will then be taken to court where both the parties will be heard through their lawyers and the judgment will be given.
Through Lawtendo you can connect to an appropriate lawyer who will help in filing or defending your case for the offence under Section 493 of IPC. We, at Lawtendo, provide around 15000+ Lawyers all over the Country on our Online Platform. We provide Cost Effective and Quality Legal Services.
| Offence | Punishment | Cognizance | Bail | Triable By |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage. | Imprisonment upto 10 years and fine. | Non-cognizable | Non-bailable | Magistrate of the first class. |
| Offence | Cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage. |
|---|---|
| Punishment | Imprisonment upto 10 years and fine. |
| Cognizance | Non-cognizable |
| Bail | Non-bailable |
| Triable By | Magistrate of the first class. |
