The Supreme Court observed that the relationship between the couple had become bitter and beyond repair. The long separation had made reconciliation impossible.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India has granted divorce to a couple who lived apart for 17 years after cohabiting for just over 14 months. The court ruled that their marriage had broken down irretrievably, making it impossible for them to continue as husband and wife.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Prasanna B Varale allowed the husband’s application under Article 142 of the Indian Constitution.
The court relied on the Constitution Bench judgment in Shilpa Sailesh Vs Varun Sreenivasan (2023) to dissolve the marriage.
The court noted that both the husband and wife are in their early forties and have spent much of their adult lives fighting legal battles.
It stated:
“No purpose shall be served by insisting for the parties to continue a marital relation which is already dead.”
Background
The couple got married on October 6, 2006, under Hindu Vedic rites. They lived together for just over a year before separating. The husband claimed that the wife left the matrimonial home on December 25, 2007. The wife admitted that they had been living separately since 2007 but alleged that this was due to dowry demands and mistreatment by her husband and his family.
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The husband had challenged a decision of the Uttarakhand High Court, which dismissed his request to adjust the Rs 5,000 he was paying under Section 125 CrPC against the Rs 15,000 awarded under the Domestic Violence Act.
Meanwhile, in 2019, the Family Court in Dehradun rejected the husband’s divorce petition and granted the wife’s plea for restitution of conjugal rights. The husband’s appeal against this order is still pending before the High Court.
The Supreme Court observed that the relationship between the couple had become bitter and beyond repair. The long separation had made reconciliation impossible.
The court stated:
“The relations between the parties have evidently grown sour beyond the point of return and such a long period of separation has turned these differences irreconcilable.”
It further noted:
“It is unfortunate that the parties have already spent a large number of years of their adult lives fighting marital battles in the courtrooms. The parties are currently placed in their early forties and still have a considerable natural life ahead of them to look forward to. It is evident that in the instant case, the marital discord has reached to a point of no remedy and there is an irretrievable breakdown of marriage.”
Considering the financial situation of both parties, the court decided on a one-time alimony payment. It noted that since there were no children from the marriage, only the wife needed financial support. The husband, a lecturer at a Government College in Uttarakhand, was directed to pay Rs 40 lakh as a permanent alimony settlement.
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The court ruled:
“We deem it just and equitable to grant an amount of Rs 40 lakhs as a one-time settlement amount of permanent alimony in favour of the respondent. The said amount shall cover all the pending and future monetary claims of the respondent against the appellant-husband.”
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