Divorce granted by a foreign court on grounds of irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not legal: SC
View of the Supreme Court of India. File | Photo credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 3, 2026) ruled that a divorce decree issued by a foreign court on the grounds of irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not lawful.
Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar made the observation while dismissing the plea of a man who wanted to quash a case filed against him for bigamy and criminal conspiracy.
“In our opinion, the foreign divorce decree was passed in violation of the existing matrimonial law in India and on a basis not even recognized by law.”
“This not only violates the statutory threshold of Section 13 CPC, which every foreign decree must cross, but also the observations of this Court regarding the conditions that a foreign decree must satisfy to be enforceable in India,” the court said.
The Supreme Court hearing the case said that the sanctity of marital status cannot yield to such a “forum non conveniens” (inconvenient forum).
“We cannot accept this submission in the manner it has been propagated because the accused no.1/husband was married to the respondent no.2/first wife in India as per Hindu rites, rituals and customs.”
“Therefore, even if the second marriage took place outside India, the charges under Section 494 IPC cannot be said to be watered down because the investigation into the offense of bigamy cannot be confined to the place of the second marriage but must necessarily take into account the existing conjugal relationship,” the judge said.
In this case, the man married his first wife on 18 April 2003 at Sattenapalli, Andhra Pradesh according to Hindu rites and customs. After marriage, they lived in Hyderabad, where the husband completed his graduation from Osmania Medical College.
On February 4, 2005, the man left for the United Kingdom to pursue his career as a doctor and was later joined by his wife.
In August 2007, the first wife returned to her parental home in Sattenapalli to give birth. The man claimed she had not returned to the UK despite repeated requests
As the marital relationship of the parties deteriorated, the husband initiated divorce and guardianship proceedings in the competent Court at Narasaraopet, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh, which was dismissed.
He later appealed to the High Court, but this was subsequently withdrawn.
The husband was granted British citizenship on 1 February 2013 and he introduced it
divorce proceedings against his first wife before the Cambridge County Court in England, which in 2014 granted him a divorce on the grounds of irretrievable breakdown of the marriage.
The man later remarried in Norfolk, UK.
After almost two years, the first wife filed a complaint at Sattenapalli Town Police Station, Guntur under Sections 494, 120B read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
While the High Court refused to stay the case against the man, it stayed the prosecution of his parents and second wife.
Published – 03 Nov 2026 20:19 IST