Not all marriages are happy and not all divorces are unhappy. Monday is the day for those who want to avoid a bad marriage supreme court verdict on divorce Will be seen as a good move. leaning on the “guiding spirit” of Article 142(1) of the Constitution. To do “complete justice” in any “cause or matter”, a constitution bench said it can use this extraordinary discretionary power to grant divorce by mutual consent to couples stuck in acrimonious marriages. The aim is to save the couple the “pain and misery” of waiting six to 18 months for a local court, prescribed under Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. A division bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul noted that the law of divorce, which is primarily built on at-fault, fails to heal broken marriages. It pointed out that if a marriage breaks down beyond hope, the public interest lies in recognizing this fact, and not in maintaining ‘married’ status in spite of it. The Court said it can use Section 142 to quash pending criminal or legal proceedings, whether related to domestic violence or dowry, against a man or a woman. Continuing this tension, the Bench held that the Supreme Court can grant divorce on the grounds of “irretrievable breakdown of marriage” if “separation is inevitable and the damage is irreparable”. Under the Hindu Marriage Act, irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not yet a ground for divorce.
In its judgment, there was a word of caution that the grant of divorce “shall not be a matter of right, but of a discretion which is to be exercised very carefully… keeping in mind that ‘complete justice’ to both the parties is done”. Several factors will be considered by the Supreme Court before invoking Article 142 in matrimonial matters, including the duration of the marriage, the duration of the litigation, the time the couple has been separated, the nature of pending matters and efforts at reconciliation Courts have to be satisfied that the divorce was not arranged by force. In India, while the number of divorces has doubled over the last two decades, the incidence of divorce is still 1.1%, with the largest proportion in urban areas. But divorce statistics don’t tell the whole story; there are many women, especially among the poor, who have been abandoned or abandoned. The 2011 census found that the population who are “separated” is nearly three times the number who are divorced. In a country that is largely poor, where gender discrimination is rampant and many women are still not financially independent, the Court’s emphasis on “care and caution” and not rushing into quick divorces is to be welcomed Needed After all, marriage equality isn’t a reality for everyone.