India, June 23 -- The Orissa High Court has refused to quash criminal proceedings against a woman accused of forging a man's signature on a sale deed to fraudulently obtain a marriage certificate under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, and subsequently securing an interim maintenance order against him by claiming to be his wife.

Dismissing a revision petition filed by a woman named Puspanjali Swain, high court judge Justice V Narasingh held that a government handwriting expert's opinion that the signatures did not match, combined with procedural irregularities in the marriage registration, was sufficient material for the trial court to proceed with the case.

Swain allegedly obtained the signature of a man named Shovan Kumar Sahoo under th...