Discuss whether the marriage is void or voidable and, if so, on what grounds.

According to Lord Penzance of Hyde v Hyde (1866) LR 1 PD 130, marriage can be demarcated as "a voluntary bond between men and women to eliminate everyone else throughout their lives." It discusses the legitimacy of Mormon`s marriage. It is real in today’s time in the sense that the marriage has reached an agreement, is heterosexual, and must be monogamous. It doesn`t have to be a lifetime anymore, but the law doesn`t allow fixed-term contracts as legal marriages. Marriage differs from other contracts in that the terms are determined by the state, not the parties, and the partner cannot independently agree to terminate it. The Marriage Annulment Act of 1971 is a British law that defines good grounds for the dissolution of a marriage. Marriage was the first in British law to be specifically defined by court as marriage between a woman and a man in that act. Therefore, a marriage may be declared invalid if the partners are not male and female. The marriage requirement between a man and a woman was later repealed by the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act of 2013.

If a marriage is invalid or void, it may be declared null and void. The 1973 MCA applies to marriages that are annullable under Section 11 and marriages that are annullable under Section 12. In De Renville v De Renville, Lord Green defined a void marriage as something which is assumed to be never happened. A marriage is void if it falls under the prohibited blood relationship, that is, blood and intimacy, or if one of the spouses is under the age of 16 because one of the spouses is not legally able to marry. Also, if the parties continue to marry knowing that they have violated the form, the marriage is void. This can be demonstrated in Gehrels vs. Yagoub. A marriage is void unless it is annulled. A marriage may be dissolved if it did not begin because of the incapacity or wilful refusal of one of the spouses. For completion, regular and thorough sexual contact is required. However, a party cannot, on its own, refuse to receive an invalidation order. As Hirani v. Hirani shows, a marriage can be declared void if there is no consent or if there is coercion, error or mental disorder.

Marriage may or may not be annulled. If a marriage can be declared null and void, If the marriage is annulled by a court order, it will stay in force until the death of one or both of the parties. The commencement of an illegitimate marriage is null and void. After the death of one of the parties, any person with a reasonable interest may obtain an invalidity decision. While in theory, an annulment of marriage is void regardless of any official ruling, it is frequently necessary to clear up the initial uncertainty by having a legal judgement issued by the court that annuls the marriage.

In order to obtain a writ of divorce, the sole basis for an indivisible breakup of the marriage must be the five facts specified in section 1(2) of the MCA 1973: adultery, act, desertion, mutual consent and two years of separation on the basis of the five facts. s1(1) Period of separation as specified in MCA 1973. Divorce dissolves the marriage relationship, whereas annulment simply dissolves the marriage. If an annulment is allowed, the parties are legally single and will not divorce. In other words, divorce is a family law act, such as breaking a contract. Divorce always occurs after marriage, but annulment admits only deficiencies that existed before marriage. However, applicants often alternate between the two treatments, as both lead to the dissolution of the marriage..

Hence the marriage of Sam and Chris is voidable on two grounds. Before discussing those grounds, this report discusses void and voidable marriages.

Void marriage- void marriages are null and void from the start and theoretically can be treated as if they never happened, so neither party needs to seek an annulment in court. However, it is almost always desirable for the parties to do so to provide evidence that they can remarry in the future if they so desire. A marriage that is initially void may be because one party is already married to the other, one party was under the age of consent at the time, or the law did not initially allow them to marry each other (i.e., if they were related by blood).