Legal provisions regarding Cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage under section 493 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage:
“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, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.”
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The ingredients of the offence under Section 493 are:
i) The accused cohabited with the prosecutrix.
ii) He was not legally married to her
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iii) She has consented to the cohabitation believing that she had been lawfully married to him
iv) Such belief in her was induced by deceit on the part of the accused.
No Court shall take cognizance of an offence under Section 493, except upon a complaint made by some person aggrieved by such offence. The offence is non-cognizable, but a warrant should issue. It is non-bailable, as well as non-compoundable, and is triable by a Magistrate of the first class.
Section 493 is invoked when a man either married or unmarried, induces a woman to become (as he thinks) his wife, but in reality, is his concubine. This offence may be committed by a person falsely causing a woman to believe that he is of the same race, creed or religion as herself and this inducing her to contract a marriage, which in reality is unlawful, but which according to the law under which she lives, is valid.
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For completion of offence under section 493, it is necessary that the woman on the belief of being that man’s wife, submits herself to him for cohabitation or sexual inter-course and that man cohabits with her.
The form of the marriage ceremony depends on the race or religion to which the parties to the marriage belong. If the parties to the marriage do not belong to the same race or religion, they can change their religion. The offence under Section 493 shall be deemed to have been committed when a person falsely induces a woman to believe that he belongs to the same caste or religion to which he belongs.