New Delhi: The Supreme Court has set aside a judgment of the Madras High Court, which dissolved the marriage of a couple living separately for more than 12 years. The apex court said the High Court did not record a finding on allegations of cruelty on the part of the wife and committed an error of law by relying on the principle of irretrievable breakdown of marriage to dissolve the marriage between the parties in a contested divorce proceeding.
A bench comprising justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi said, “The High Court has dealt with the evidence in detail, but there is no finding that cruelty was meted out by the appellant-wife to the respondent-husband”. The High Court had noted that the parties have been living separately for more than 12 years and the endeavour to bring reconciliation between the parties failed, resultantly, the marriage is dead, both emotionally and practically. The High Court said that continuance of the relationship for the namesake is prolonging the agony and affliction would be a cruelty to both the parties.
“Therefore, we are of the considered opinion that the marriage between the parties has broken down irretrievably and the parties could no longer live together as husband and wife”, said the High Court, in its judgment passed in March 2022. Both husband and wife preferred appeals in the apex court against the High Court order.
In the husband’s appeal, the main ground was that a decree of divorce ought to have been granted upon a finding of cruelty, whereas the wife had founded her appeal on the basis that the family court ought not to have ordered judicial separation. The apex court said, "We are of the opinion that the High Court has committed an error of law by relying on the principle of irretrievable breakdown of marriage to dissolve the marriage between the parties in a contested divorce proceeding”.
The apex court said the High Court did not return any finding on allegations of cruelty on the part of the wife, on which the family court came to a specific conclusion. Remanding the appeals to the High Court for a fresh hearing, the apex court, in its order on September 11, said, “A decision on that count was necessary for proper adjudication of the appeals. Hence, the judgment of the High Court, to the extent it decreed divorce by dissolving the marriage between the parties, shall stand set aside”.
A family court at Erode, acting on a plea by the husband, passed an order for judicial separation instead of the decree of divorce. The family court had found certain acts of the wife, which emerged from evidence to come within the “purview of cruelty.” The couple filed appeals in the Madras High Court. The husband said the decree of divorce should have been granted upon findings of cruelty. However, the wife challenged the order of judicial separation.
The apex court noted that the aspect of the judgment of the family court was not addressed in the High Court’s judgment. “On the other hand, the High Court has applied the principle of irretrievable breakdown of marriage to grant a decree of divorce by dissolving the marriage between the parties”, said the apex court.
