The Supreme Court struck down the legal validity of foreign divorce decrees citing 'irretrievable breakdown of marriage,' ruling such grounds are unrecognized under Indian law. Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar delivered the verdict on Tuesday, rejecting a petition to quash bigamy charges against a Hyderabad-based doctor. The bench explicitly stated that the foreign decree contravened existing Indian matrimonial laws and failed to meet the statutory threshold of Section 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
The case traces back to a man who married his first wife in Sattenapalli, Andhra Pradesh, on April 18, 2003, under Hindu rites. The couple moved to the UK in 2005, where the husband pursued a medical career. After his first wife returned to India in 2007 for delivery and did not follow, he filed for divorce in India, but those proceedings were dismissed. He later obtained UK citizenship in 2013 and secured a divorce from the Cambridge County Court in 2014, specifically on the ground of irretrievable breakdown. He then remarried in Norfolk.
Two years later, the first wife lodged a complaint at Sattenapalli Town Police Station under Sections 494 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code. The Supreme Court clarified that the sanctity of a matrimonial status established in India cannot yield to 'forum non conveniens' arguments. The bench emphasized that since the first marriage was conducted under Hindu customs in India, the inquiry into bigamy must consider the subsisting domestic relationship, regardless of where the second marriage took place.
While the top court upheld the criminal proceedings against the husband, it quashed the charges against his parents and second wife. This ruling closes a legal loophole that allowed individuals to leverage foreign jurisdictions to bypass strict Indian divorce grounds. For thousands of NRIs, this decision introduces significant legal risk, as a UK or US divorce may not protect them from criminal liability in India if the ground for divorce is not recognized domestically.