Supreme Court says foreign divorce on unrecognised grounds not valid in India

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ruled that a foreign divorce decree granted on a ground not recognised under Indian matrimonial law cannot automatically be treated as valid in the country, refusing to quash bigamy proceedings against a man who remarried in the United Kingdom after obtaining such a divorce.

A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar observed that the UK court had dissolved the man's first marriage on the ground of irretrievable breakdown, which is not a recognised ground for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act.

The case involved a couple who married in Andhra Pradesh in 2003 and later moved to the UK. After their relationship deteriorated, the husband obtained a divorce decree from a court in England in January 2014 and married another woman in March that year.

The first wife subsequently filed a criminal complaint in Andhra Pradesh alleging bigamy and criminal conspiracy.

The Supreme Court rejected the husband's contention that the foreign court's decision should be recognised in India, noting that his first wife had contested its jurisdiction. It also held that his subsequent acquisition of British citizenship and the marriage taking place abroad did not remove the legal consequences of his subsisting first marriage.

However, the bench quashed the criminal proceedings against his parents and second wife, finding insufficient material to establish their involvement in the alleged offences.