Supreme Court makes irretrievable breakdown of marriage as ground for divorce under Article 142

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that it can invoke its special powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India to grant divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage, which was not yet a statutorily recognised ground.

The verdict was pronounced by the Constitution Bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice A.S. Oka, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice J.K. Maheshwari.

Reading out the operative portion of the judgment, Justice Khanna said that a marriage can now be dissolved on the grounds of its irretrievable breakdown, adding that the decision will not contravene the specific or fundamental principles of public policy. 

The Apex Court said it has specified the factors on the basis of which a marriage could be held to be irretrievably broken down.

The top court of the country further held that the mandatory waiting period of six months for divorce by mutual consent can be dispensed with, subject to the requirements and conditions laid down in the previous judgments.

A detailed copy of the verdict is awaited.

The matter originally referred to the Supreme Court pertained to the question whether the mandatory waiting period for divorce by mutual consent as prescribed under Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act could be waived.

During the hearing, however, the Constitution Bench decided to consider the issue of whether marriages could be dissolved on the ground of irretrievable breakdown.

In its order passed on September 20 last year, the Apex Court had held that the question on whether the power under Article 142 of the Constitution was inhibited in any manner in a scenario where there was an irretrievable breakdown of marriage in the opinion of the Court, but one of the parties was not consenting to the terms, needed consideration of this court.

The Apex Court appointed Senior Advocates Indira Jaising, Kapil Sibal, V. Giri, Dushyant Dave and Meenakshi Arora as Amici Curiae in the case. 

(Case title: Shilpa Sailesh vs Varun Sreenivasan and connected matters)

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