The Rajasthan High Court has strongly criticised the traditional “Aata-Sata” marriage system, calling it “legally and morally bankrupt” while granting divorce to a woman from Bikaner in a matrimonial cruelty case. The court observed that such arrangements reduce women and children to a form of “marital barter” and cannot be protected under the guise of custom or tradition.

A division bench comprising Justice Arun Monga and Justice Sunil Beniwal set aside an earlier family court order that had denied divorce to the woman. The high court ruled that matrimonial disputes should be decided on the principle of “preponderance of probabilities” rather than the stricter “beyond reasonable doubt” standard used in criminal trials. The bench said the family court had committed a serious error in its assessment of the case.

According to the case details, the woman was married in Bikaner on March 31, 2016, under Hindu customs. On the same day, under the “Aata-Sata” arrangement, her husband’s minor sister was married to the woman’s brother. However, after attaining adulthood, the girl refused to accept the child marriage, triggering conflict between the two families and eventually affecting the matrimonial relationship of the appellant.

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The woman alleged that she was subjected to physical and mental cruelty linked to dowry demands and was thrown out of her matrimonial home along with her minor daughter in March 2020. She later filed FIRs against her husband and father-in-law alleging dowry harassment, after which police filed a chargesheet. The husband, meanwhile, argued that the dispute arose solely because his sister refused to continue the marriage arranged during childhood.

While overturning the family court ruling, the high court observed that the lower court had wrongly mixed the broader family dispute arising from the “Aata-Sata” arrangement with the issue of cruelty faced by the woman within her marriage. During proceedings, the woman also informed the court through her counsel that she was willing to waive all past and future maintenance claims in exchange for dissolution of the marriage and peace of mind.

The court made severe observations on the “Aata-Sata” system, particularly when it involves minors, stating that such practices create coercive social structures where the liberty of one girl becomes dependent on the compliance of another. Referring to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, the bench said no custom can override the law and emphasised that consent shaped through years of social conditioning during childhood cannot be considered genuine free consent after adulthood.

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