Australian bride’s surprise forced marriage to her Indian uncle annulled for duress
A BIZARRE forced marriage case has heard a woman with language and reasoning abilities of a girl aged four to seven passed her VCE before being wed to her uncle in an Indian arranged marriage.
Law & Order
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THE standard of Australian schooling has been brought into question in a unique Family Court case involving a woman’s surprise marriage to her ageing uncle in India.
“Ms Sarvari” — a court-given pseudonym — applied to the court last year using legal aid to have her marriage to her mother’s brother “Mr Atapati” annulled on the grounds of duress.
Experienced Family Court judge Paul Cronin acknowledged “the facts of this case are very unusual, if not unique”.
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Clinical neuropsychologist “Dr B” told the court Ms Sarvari was “childlike”, with language and visual-motor skills well below her biological age.
“They were equivalent to those of a typical four-year-old, with reasoning abilities at a five-year-old level, memory and conceptual thinking of a six-year-old, and social intelligence at a seven-year-old level. That too, is corroborated by what I observed in the witness box,” Justice Cronin said.
“The confusing situation is that the applicant completed secondary schooling in Australia, and appears to have done reasonably well. She went on to start a (tertiary) course but did not proceed with it.”
Given this background, Justice Cronin wondered why Ms Sarvari’s mother would press her daughter to marry.
Both Ms Sarvari’s mother and her father, who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, told the court they were concerned their daughter needed someone to look after her as they aged.
Justice Cronin found “not much sense can be drawn from that”, as the uncle is around their ages.
Ms Sarvari accompanied her parents to India in 2015 on what she thought was a holiday to visit family.
While there, Ms Sarvari’s parents told her they had arranged for her to be married — in two days’ time.
Ms Sarvari said when she told them she was not interested in marrying her uncle, her mother told her no one else would marry her, and her uncle was more mature and would look after her.
When she continued to protest, Ms Sarvari said her mother threatened to stop eating and to leave the family.
Ms Sarvari contemplated suicide but eventually agreed to marry, fearing bring disowned by her parents and thus having nowhere to live.
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Judge Cronin accepted the mother wanted her “childlike” daughter married for cultural or financial protection.
Although the uncle had not given evidence and had only been served court documents through Ms Sarvari’s grandmother in India, Justice Cronin said he was satisfied the daughter’s consent to marry was not genuine, due to the pressure of her parents.
“ ... and I now have evidence from (Ms Sarvari’s) mother indicating that she has had some communication with her brother (the respondent’s husband), but ultimately through the grandmother, indicating that he too wants “a cancellation” of the marriage, for cultural reasons,” the judge found.
He ordered the marriage be annulled and that the uncle be informed by post.
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