Foreign divorce decree on irretrievable breakdown not valid in India: SC

The Supreme Court held that a UK divorce decree granted on the ground of irretrievable breakdown was not enforceable in India. It refused to quash a bigamy case against the husband but dropped proceedings against his parents and second wife

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that a divorce decree granted by a foreign court on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not legally enforceable in India.

A Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar made the observation while dismissing a plea by a man seeking the quashing of a case registered against him for bigamy and criminal conspiracy.

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“In our view, the foreign divorce decree was passed in contravention of the existing matrimonial law in India and on a ground that is not even recognised statutorily.

“This not only violates the legal threshold of Section 13 of the CPC, which every foreign decree has to pass through, but also the observations made by this Court as to the conditions required to be fulfilled by a foreign decree to be enforceable in India,” the Bench said.

The Supreme Court said the sanctity of matrimonial status could not be allowed to yield to the principle of forum non conveniens (inconvenient forum).

“We cannot accept this submission in the manner canvassed as accused No. 1/husband was married to respondent No. 2/first wife in India under the Hindu rites, rituals and customs.

“Thus, even if the second marriage took place outside India, the allegations under Section 494 of the IPC cannot be said to be diluted since enquiry for the offence of bigamy cannot be confined to the place of second marriage but must necessarily take into account the subsisting matrimonial relationship,” the Bench said.

The man married his first wife on April 18, 2003, in Sattenapalli, Andhra Pradesh, according to Hindu rites and customs. After their marriage, they lived in Hyderabad, where the husband was pursuing postgraduate studies at Osmania Medical College.

On February 4, 2005, the man moved to the UK to pursue a career as a doctor. His wife joined him later.

In August 2007, the first wife returned to her parental home in Sattenapalli for delivery. The man claimed that she did not return to the UK despite his repeated requests.

As the matrimonial relationship deteriorated, the husband instituted divorce and custody proceedings before the competent court at Narasaraopet in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district. The proceedings were dismissed.

He later filed an appeal in the High Court but subsequently withdrew it.

The husband was granted British citizenship on February 1, 2013, and instituted divorce proceedings against his first wife before the Cambridge County Court in England. The court granted him a divorce in 2014 on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage.

The man subsequently married again in Norfolk, the UK.

Nearly two years later, his first wife lodged a complaint at the Sattenapalli Town Police Station in Guntur district under Sections 494 and 120B read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

While refusing to quash the case against the husband, the Supreme Court quashed the criminal proceedings against his parents and second wife.