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Public interest lies in dissolving a dead marriage when a relationship has been wrecked beyond hope of salvage, a Constitution bench held on Monday, ruling that the Supreme Court can grant divorce in the event of irretrievable breakdown without sending the parties to a family court, where they must wait for at least six months to obtain by mutual consent or by proving accusations against each other...
Granting legitimacy to a ground of separation beyond the statutory provisions under the 1955 Hindu Marriage Act (HMA), the five-judge bench led by justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said that the apex court can exercise its exclusive powers under Article 142 and grant divorce to do complete justice to the parties in cases where the marriage is totally unworkable, emotionally dead and beyond salvation and, therefore, dissolution of marriage is the right solution and the only way forward...
The bench, also comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna, AS Oka, Vikram Nath, and JK Maheshwari, noted that though the irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not a legally recognised ground for dissolving marriage, and that HMA obligates a couple to wait for 6-18 months before a decree can be passed, courts must not encourage matrimonial litigation since it is detrimental to both parties who lose time in chasing a raft of cases against each other...
Declaring that the apex court can dispense with the waiting period where the couples have already moved the family courts for divorce, the bench said that the Supreme Court can invoke its powers under Article 142 to dissolve marriage on settlement by passing a decree of divorce by mutual consent, as well as quash and set aside other proceedings, including criminal proceedings..
Fault theory can be diluted by this court to do complete justice in a particular case, without breaching the self-imposed restraint applicable when this court exercises power under Article 142(1) of the Constitution of India, said the bench, underlining the Supreme Courts powers do complete justice is not fettered by the doctrine of fault and blame, applicable to petitions for divorce under Section 13(1) of HMA...
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