Kathmandu, February 17

The Bill to amend and consolidate civil laws, which is sub judice in the Parliament, has proposed conditions under which the court may annul a marriage without one or both parties having to seek divorce.

The law has stated: “If a person has terminal illness and is sexless or impotent, mentally unsound, visually or hearing-impaired, leprotic, already married, pregnant and convicted of crime involving moral turpitude, he/she should not marry or cause to be married by hiding the truth,” read the law.

If a man or a woman wishes to invalidate marriage and refuses to continue marital life on these grounds, the court may nullify such marriage. Likewise, the bill proposes that if a woman is impregnated and gives birth to a baby due to physical relationship with a man, such woman and man will be automatically considered to have been married unless it is a result of rape or incestuous relationship.

Any person can marry again under the laws after invalidation of his/her previous marriage on grounds of deception and fraud.

“Where a baby is born from rape or incest, the man will be treated as a criminal. However, it will not bar such baby from enjoying the rights conferred by the laws in force,” the bill further reads. At the same time, a married woman may use the surname used by her parents or by her husband or both.