- A foreign divorce is not automatically valid
- Conditions of Indian law must be fulfilled for divorce
- Criminal action on second marriage
Supreme Court on Foreign Divorce: The Supreme Court has given an important decision regarding marriage in India and divorce abroad. Suppose if a person gets married in India. A few years later he went abroad and got a divorce from the local court. Now he wants to come back to India and get married. Then the Supreme Court has clarified an important point on the question of whether a divorce taken abroad will be valid in India.
A divorce granted by a foreign court is not automatically valid in India
A bench of justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Chandrasekhar has given an important ruling on this issue. A divorce obtained by a foreign court is not automatically valid in India. Conditions of Indian law must be met. In order to dissolve a marriage under Indian law, the judgment of the foreign court must also be in accordance with Indian legal norms. It also requires fulfillment of the conditions laid down in Section 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CrPC).
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“A divorce granted by a foreign court must be on valid grounds in Indian law in the case of a marriage solemnized under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. A divorce granted merely on the ground of total breakdown of marriage cannot automatically be recognized in India.
That is, a person cannot, by obtaining a divorce from a foreign court, assume that his first marriage has ended even in India. It is necessary to check whether the ground on which the concerned divorce is granted is recognized in Indian law or not. The court has also said that.
Criminal action for second marriage
According to the decision of the Supreme Court, a foreign divorce decree cannot be used as a defense in the case of bigamy. A person can be criminally prosecuted if he marries a second marriage only on the basis of a foreign divorce without terminating the first marriage in India under Indian law.
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Notably, this rule can apply even if the person concerned has taken up citizenship of a foreign country after marriage. Divorce and remarriage abroad do not automatically terminate the first marriage in India. So the first marriage can remain valid under Indian law.
Conditions for Recognition of Foreign Divorce
According to a Supreme Court ruling, certain conditions must be met for a foreign court's divorce decree to be recognized in India.
Adherence to natural justice requires: The judgment of the foreign court should be given in accordance with the principles of natural justice.
There should be no fraud: The decree of divorce must not have been obtained on the basis of fraud.
The grounds for divorce must be valid: Divorce must be on grounds recognized in Indian law such as cruelty, desertion, adultery or mutual consent.
There should be no unilateral decision: If the other spouse has not accepted the jurisdiction of the foreign court and has not participated in the litigation, the unilateral decision cannot be binding on him.
Merely obtaining a divorce decree from a foreign court based on all the above criteria is not sufficient. For that decision to be legally recognized in India, the criteria in Indian law must be met.