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Anurag Vijaykumar Goel v. State of Maharashtra

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 926Decided 5 Aug 2025
Criminal Appeal No. 5277 of 2024
Chief Justice B.R. Gavai · Justice K. Vinod Chandran

Background

The appellant-husband and the respondent-wife, both previously divorced from earlier marriages, married in 2015 but separated after about 21 months amid mutual allegations of harassment and abandonment, leading to a Section 498-A complaint and FIR against the husband. A later attempt at divorce by mutual consent, mediated by the Delhi Family Court in 2022, produced a signed settlement under which the husband agreed to transfer his valuable Mumbai apartment to the wife, but she withdrew from the agreement before the second divorce motion could be completed, leading to further litigation including a contempt case.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found the allegations underlying the 498-A complaint to be vague, generic marital squabbles lacking specific particulars, and quashed the criminal case on that basis. Separately invoking its special Article 142 power, the Court held the marriage had irretrievably broken down and dissolved it despite the absence of a completed mutual-consent process, ordering the husband to clear outstanding society dues and transfer the Mumbai apartment (with its parking spaces) to the wife as full compensation, while rejecting her demand for additional permanent alimony given her own employability and his reduced income after leaving his banking job to care for his disabled child.

Lesson Learnt

The Supreme Court can dissolve a marriage under Article 142 of the Constitution even without both spouses' final consent, once it is convinced the relationship is beyond repair; separately, a criminal complaint built only on vague, unparticularized allegations of marital discord, without specific instances, is liable to be quashed rather than sent to trial.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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