New Delhi. The pages of the book of relationships have been turned, but the story is not over. Distance knocks on the door, but the court says to wait. The Supreme Court has recently made it clear in an important case related to matrimonial disputes that divorce cannot be granted merely on the ground that the husband and wife are living separately and their marriage is irretrievably broken. In an important order, the Court has expressed deep concern over this trend, where lower courts and High Courts consider separation as conclusive evidence of breakdown of marriage.
It is mandatory to fix responsibility
The Supreme Court clarified that unless there is concrete evidence of willful abandonment or refusal of sexual intercourse, divorce cannot be granted considering the marriage as broken. A bench of Justice Surya Kant (who is now the Chief Justice of India) and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, in its order on November 14, said that before declaring any marriage beyond repair, it is mandatory for the courts to determine that:
1. Who is guilty of separation: Which of the two parties is responsible for breaking the marital relationship and forcing the other party to live separately.
2. Willful Abandonment: Whether one party has intentionally abandoned the other.
3. Circumstantial separation: Whether a party was forced to live separately due to circumstances beyond his or her control.
Destructive impact on children
The Supreme Court stressed that the importance of this question increases even more when children are involved in the case. “Unless there is concrete evidence of willful abandonment or refusal of sexual intercourse, a finding of irretrievable breakdown of the marriage can have devastating consequences, especially on the children,” the bench said in the order. The court said that before giving such a conclusion, there is a strict duty on the courts to thoroughly analyze the entire evidence, consider the social circumstances and background of the parties and keep in mind other important factors.
Uttarakhand High Court’s decision reversed
The Supreme Court made this comment in a case where the husband had filed a divorce case on the grounds of cruelty in 2010, which was later withdrawn. In 2013, he again filed a petition accusing his wife of abandonment. The trial court rejected the petition in 2018 due to lack of evidence, but in 2019, the Uttarakhand High Court reversed this decision and granted divorce to the husband. The wife moved the apex court against this. The Supreme Court found that the Uttarakhand High Court, while accepting the oral statements of the husband, ignored the wife’s claim that she was thrown out of the in-laws’ house and that she was raising the child alone.
No divorce on grounds of mere separation
The court also reprimanded the High Court for not paying attention to legal questions like withdrawal of old cases. The apex court canceled the divorce order and sent the case back to the High Court for fresh consideration. This decision ensured that any final conclusion in matrimonial matters should not be reached on the basis of emotions or mere separation but on the basis of thorough judicial investigation.
