Cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage – Section 493 of IPC:
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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Scope:
The essence of an offence under this section consists of the deception practised by a man upon a woman as a result of which the woman is led to believe that she is lawfully married to him whereas in fact she is not lawfully married to him.
The guilt of the accused does not depend on the age of the victim with him the accused has sexual relationship by practising deception on her. A minor girl as such is not incapable of being ‘deceived’ within the meaning of this section.
Ingredients of offence:
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The essential ingredients of the offence under Section 493 are as follows:
(1) The accused practised deception on a woman;
(2) The intention of the accused to practise deceit was to induce a woman (complainant) to believe that she was lawfully married to the accused;
(3) There was cohabitation or sexual intercourse as a result of the deception.