Betrothment In English Law And Position In English Law

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INTRODUCTION :
Position in English laws
In english law marriage restraining agreements are not encouraged as they are averse to increase in population . Some watershed events to testify this are :
1) lowe vs peers (1768)-court of king’s bench
In this case the defendant had entered into an agreement to marry no one but the promisee on penalty of paying her 1000 Pounds within three months of marrying anyone else. Remarks by the court were
“that it was not a promise to marry her, but not to marry any one else, and yet she was under no obligation to marry him.”
It ruled the contract void as it was purely restrictive and carried no promise to marry on either side.
2) Hartley v. Rice
There was a bet between two men that one of them would not marry …show more content…

Betrothment is a promise to give a girl in marriage. It is a gift by word, as distinguished from gift by actual delivery of the bride wherein a promise by the father of the bride in favour of the bridegroom, to give him the bride in marriage. There is a varaiable time gap after which comes the marriage ceremony. A betrothal contract is not an irrevocable contract. Defined by customs any revocation of such a contract must be based on a justified reason. Sometimes back such a revocation would entail severe penalties which were to be paid to the bridegroom.
A Contract of Betrothal is not considered an agreement in restraint of marriage within the purview of section 26 of the Indian Contract Act due to the essential difference between an agreement in restraint of marriage and a contract of betrothal which is, that in the latter each party being restrained from marrying anyone else other than themselves. Hence the restraint virtually operates in furtherance of the marriage of both.
5) Tulshiram v. Roopchand
In this a party had rescinded from the betrothal contract and had later claimed such a contract was void. The plaintiff’s in the case where awarded compensation by the court for the amount already spent in anticipation of marriage as well as for the mental torture and degradation of social esteem that

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