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The bench was dealing with a plea of a pre-arrest bail of a man, who allegedly defrauded and duped several high-profile women by posting fake details on the matrimonial sites. Taking into consideration the fact that the petitioner was alleged to be "habitual on-line matrimonial fraudsters", the bench said at preliminary stage of the case, he was not entitled for relief of pre-arrest bail at this juncture
The Madras High Court has asked the central and state government to take steps for formulating rules to governing matrimonial websites so that women do not fall prey to frauds. Court has sought formulation of guidelines in order to keep a check on suppression of materials facts, as number of such cheating cases is on rise.
The Court has directed the state government shall to form a committee so as. To frame necessary regulations in this regard, “as day-in and day-out, criminal cases are facing up after commission of cheating as defined under Section 415 of IPC [Cheating]”.
"This court is of the considered view that central or state government shall take initiation for formulation of rules governing field on this kind of matrimonial web-site to ensure, age and date of birth, the basic information about bride or bridegroom (like age, date of birth, address) are duly verified before being upload in the website and further regulation in the nature of penal provision for suppressing material facts (namely information regarding earlier marriage, status of divorce proceedings if any divorce or not, as the prospective person is being put to misconception of material facts," a single judge bench of Justice R M T Teeka Raman said.
The court said such a misrepresentation falls as defined under Section 90 of IPC and as such, further it has to be treated as commission of offence and crime against woman, as in majority case, brides do fall as prey.
"This court finds that there is no rules or regulations, nor even, SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for online matrimonial website before for hoisting profiles of bride or bridegroom, as the case may be. In most of cases, the victim of this kind of online matrimonial fraud are women,"
Referring to the penal law, particularly Section 415 of the IPC, the bench said that it was crystal clear that, some kind of preventive measure to protect the prospective person for marriage, needs necessary regulation of such website to ensure material facts are not suppressed or omitted at the initial time of initiation of marriage proposal.
The bench emphasised that the doctrine of caveat emptor on website has undergone a sea change.
"The act of the individual on E-website is based on the information supplied. On the reading of the information the person will decide either to proceed or to drop. The doctrine of caveat emptor (let the purchaser beware) has evolved into doctrine of caveat vendator (let the seller beware). However applying the doctrine of caveat vendator to the matrimonial advertisement is a grey area," the bench said.
"Admittedly, E-medium is different from magazine and necessary verification of particulars given by the prospective person in the matrimonial advertisement on a particular fact, (age, date of birth and address) needs to be verified before registration of the profile," the bench added.
The court underscored that necessary document of proof for those are to be made compulsory for registration of the profile.
"Any information regarding matrimonial status of the person should be specific and definite and should not be vague, as it is now website. Any word like unmarried is to be discarded rather unmarried, divorce proceedings pending or not, should specifically be indicated by the person who applies for the same and thus it is necessary for state government to formulate a regulation to ensure information as stated," the bench said.
Looking into the complaint by a woman doctor, working in a government hospital, the bench advised the parents of the girl to be very careful with matrimonial proposals coming by online and they have to spend extra time to thoroughly verify the credentials of those who posted the profiles before proceeding further.
The woman complainant from Chennai, in the instant case, claimed the petitioner "targetted unmarried overaged medical professionals like doctors and nurses" by projecting himself to be a doctor working in the United Kingdom.
She stated that she came in contact with the petitioner by a Christian matrimonial website. The accused presented himself as Dr Prasanna, expressed his wish to marry her and gradually duped her of Rs 68 lakh, as jewellery and loan.
After registering FIR, the complainant searched the matrimonial fraud offences in Tamil Nadu and she found that the accused is a habitual offender and he had cheated several girls and women from the year 2012 onwards with different names viz Ajay @ Vidhu @ Vidhyut @ Vijayakumar @ Girija Saravanan @ Rahul Vijay @ Tamilselvan @ Chakravarthy, by uploading his profile in different names and different professions and his main targets are doctors, widows, divorcee and aged women, and his intention is grab huge amount and gold jewels from the victims.
The woman claimed the petitioner presented himself as a doctor working in United Kingdom and when the girls approached him, he took their money and also sexually abused them.
She cited a news report of 2012 of the very same person, who had cheated 17 girls through the said modus operandi. Most of the women were alleged to have been well educated, working as doctors, nurses, college professors and IT professionals. Case Title: Prasanna Chakravarthy v. State
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