Singh v Singh
A young woman who went through an arranged marriage out of a sense of duty to her parents, rather than through fear, could not have the marriage annulled for duress.
Facts
The petitioner, a 17 year old Sikh girl, went through a marriage ceremony arranged by her parents with a man she had never met. After seeing him at the ceremony she did not like him, and she never lived with him. She petitioned for a decree of nullity on the ground of duress, and alternatively on the ground that she was incapable of consummating it because of an invincible repugnance to the husband.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal refused the decree. There was no evidence that she had been threatened or that her will had been overborne by fear; she had gone through the ceremony out of a proper respect for her parents and her religious traditions. Pressure of that kind is not duress. The court also rejected the alternative ground, because there was no evidence of an invincible repugnance amounting to incapacity, as opposed to a simple unwillingness to live with him. The test of duress was later relaxed in Hirani v Hirani, but respect for parents' wishes alone is still not enough.
Related cases on marriage, nullity and divorce
- Bellinger v Bellinger [2003] UKHL 21, [2003] 2 AC 467
- Buffery v Buffery [1988] 2 FLR 365
- Corbett v Corbett (otherwise Ashley) [1971] P 83
- Gereis v Yagoub [1997] 1 FLR 854
- Her Majesty's Attorney General v Akhter and Khan [2020] EWCA Civ 122, [2021] Fam 277
- Hirani v Hirani (1983) 4 FLR 232
- Hudson v Leigh [2009] EWHC 1306 (Fam), [2009] 2 FLR 1129
- Hyde v Hyde and Woodmansee (1866) LR 1 P & D 130
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