Court annules marriage over 'relative impotence'

In a significant judgement, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has annulled the marriage of a young couple on the grounds that the marriage cannot be sustained due to the husband's 'relative impotence'. A division bench of Justice Vibha Kankanwadi and Justice SG Chapalgaonkar, in its judgment delivered on April 15, also said that this is a suitable case to help such youth who have not been able to connect with each other mentally, emotionally or physically.

'Relative impotence' refers to impotence in which a person may be unable to have sex with a particular person, but may be able to have sex with other people. This is a different situation from normal impotence.

In this case, the 27-year-old man had approached the High Court in February 2024 after the petition was rejected by a family court. The family court rejected the petition filed by his 26-year-old wife seeking annulment of the marriage at the initial stage of accepting the petition. The High Court said in its decision that 'Relative Impotence' is a well-known condition and it is different from normal impotence. The court said that there can be various physical and mental reasons for 'relative impotence'.

The High Court said, “In the present case it can be easily ascertained that the husband has ‘relative impotence’ towards his wife. The reason for the marriage not continuing is apparently the husband's inability to have physical relations with the wife.

It said that it could not ignore the fact that this was a case involving a young couple who had to endure the pain of frustration in their marriage. The court said that the man probably initially blamed his wife for his inability to have sexual intercourse because he was hesitant in accepting that he was unable to have sexual intercourse with her.

Both of them got married in March 2023 but separated after 17 days. The couple had said that there was no physical relationship between them. The woman claimed that her husband refused to have sex with her. She said that they could not connect with each other mentally, emotionally or physically. At the same time, the man claimed that he could not have physical relations with his wife but she is in normal condition. He said that he did not want any stigma that he was impotent.

After this the wife filed a divorce petition in a family court. However, the family court rejected the application and said that the husband and wife had made these claims in collusion. The High Court set aside the decision of the family court and also annulled the marriage.