Chennai: A family welfare court in Chennai quashed the order of Australia's Adelaide Court that granted divorce to an Indian couple.
The couple fell in love while studying in Australia and got married in a church in Chennai in 2006. After marriage, the man, who hailed from Karnataka and the woman from Tamil Nadu lived in Australia and had a son.
The man's family had a problem regarding his wife's religion, culture and language, which caused a huge emotional distress for the latter. Meanwhile, the man allegedly had an affair with another woman. He allegedly extorted lakhs of money from his wife, abused her and beat her up.
The man then filed for divorce and the Adelaide Federal Circuit Court in Australia granted it on 2020. In such a situation, the woman filed a case in the Family Welfare Court in Chennai seeking to declare the divorce granted by the Australian Court invalid.
The case came up for hearing in the Third Additional Family Court in the Madras High Court complex before Justice KS Jayamangalam. Despite sending summons to her husband through email and WhatsApp to appear in the case, he did not turn up at the hearing.
Advocate George Williams appearing for the petitioner argued that the judgment should be set aside as an Australian court cannot grant divorce for a marriage held in India. In his judgment, the judge said, "Irrespective of the law under which the marriage took place in India, be it the Hindu Marriage Act or the Special Marriage Act, a case can be filed in India."
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He mentioned that the divorce was granted without issuing any summons to the wife and observed that it is an act of contempt of the Australian court as the husband has decided to marry another woman. Judge Jayamangalam annulled the divorce granted by the Adelaide Federal Circuit Court in Australia.
