Court declares marriage invalid due to husband’s “relative sexual impotence”

The court stated that this relative incompetence could have a variety of physical and mental causes.

Mumbai:

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has annulled the marriage of a young couple who were unable to consummate their marriage due to the man’s “relative sexual impotence”, noting that their frustration cannot be ignored.

In its judgment on April 15, a division bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and SG Chapalgaonkar also observed that the case is suitable to help “young marriage victims” who are mentally, emotionally or physically unable to connect with each other.

In February 2024, a 27-year-old man took to the bench after the Family Court rejected an application filed by his 26-year-old wife seeking an annulment of their marriage at the admission stage.

The High Court in its order said that the expression “relative impotence” is a known phenomenon and is different from normal impotence which implies a general inability to have sexual intercourse.

Relative impotence broadly refers to a condition in which a man may be capable of sexual intercourse but is unable to have sexual intercourse with his spouse.

The court stated that this relative incompetence could have a variety of physical and mental causes.

“In the present case, it is easily seen that the husband was relatively impotent towards his wife. The reason for the unconsummation of the marriage was this apparent relative impotence on the part of the husband,” the HC said.

The High Court said it could not ignore the fact that this was a matter of a young couple facing painful setbacks in their marriage.

The man may initially accuse his wife of not being perfect because he is hesitant to admit his relative incompetence towards her, the report said.

“Subsequently, however, he frankly admitted this and was satisfied with the fact that it would not bring him lifelong shame. Relative incompetence was somewhat different from the concept of general incompetence, and accepting relative incompetence would not bring him Brings the label of incompetence in general terms,” the HC said.

The couple married in March 2023 but separated 17 days later. The couple said their marriage was not consummated.

The woman claimed the man refused to have physical relations with her.

In her application to the Family Court seeking an annulment of the marriage, the woman said the man was “relatively impotent”.

She said they were unable to connect with each other mentally, emotionally or physically.

The man initially submitted an affidavit to the family court claiming the marriage was not consummated but blamed it on the woman.

He later submitted a written statement admitting relative incompetence.

The man claimed that he was unable to have a physical relationship with his wife, but otherwise he was normal. He said in a statement that he did not want to be stigmatized in any way because of his overall sexual impotence.

Thereafter, the wife filed an application with the Family Court requesting the Family Court to rule on the divorce defense at the acceptance stage in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code instead of conducting a trial.

However, the Family Court dismissed the application saying the man and the woman had brought a collusion claim.

The HC judge set aside the family court order and declared the marriage void.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)