Madras HC directs matrimonial sites, founders to be impleaded as respondents

The Madras High Court Monday directed that private matrimonial websites and their founders be impleaded as respondents to a PIL filed by an NGO which sought directions to control and monitor such sites.

Justices M Sathayanarayanan and B Pugalendi of the Madurai bench gave the direction on a Public Interest Litigation filed by the managing trustee of a Tiruchirappali based NGO, Parents Trust.

The NGO submitted that such matrimonial sites were being misused and there was a need to control and monitor them.

It sought directions to frame suitable guidelines to include their verification and identification.

The NGO quoted an incident in Tiruchirapalli, where a man had allegedly cheated a widow, who was a medical practitioner and the mother of a girl, after promising to marry her.

On the advice of her friends and relatives, the woman had uploaded her profile on a matrimonial site.

The man, who was already married, had posted matrimonial ads on different websites without his photograph or mentioning his history, the NGO said.