ex-parte divorce granted by Foreign Court Invalid: Delhi
High Court
The Delhi high court has held that divorce granted by a
foreign court on the ground of "irretrievable break down of marriage” is
not valid in India.
The court said this was because the Hindu Marriage Act did
not recognize this ground valid for dissolution of marriage.
"Both the parties are Indians and marriage between them
was solemnised at New Delhi according to Hindu rites and both are governed by
the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA). Their marriage has been dissolved by a court in
UK on the ground of having been broken down irretrievably which is not a ground
for divorce under the HMA..." Justice Veena Birbal said citing a supreme
court judgment.
The court said this while rejecting the plea of an
Indian-origin UK resident to drop the divorce proceedings initiated by his wife
in Delhi on the ground that he had already secured a divorce decree from a UK
court in 2011.
From the records the judge found that the UK court’s was an
ex-parte decree (without hearing the wife) and she had not submitted herself to
the jurisdiction of the foreign court.
"She also informed that she was in acute financial
difficulty to come to London to contest the divorce case. She wrote in detail
about her financial condition and also informed that she had already filed a
divorce petition in India. She requested the UK court not to make the divorce
decree 'absolute'...... In these circumstances, it cannot be said that she had
submitted to the jurisdiction of the foreign court," the court said.
They couple fell in love after meeting each other in UK in
2004 and got married in Delhi in March 2005. With the passage of time, disputes
arose between them as a result of which they could not live together.
She came back to Delhi in 2009 and filed a divorce petition
in a court here leveling charges of
domestic violence, cruelty and assault against her husband.
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