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Neha Lal v. Abhishek Kumar

Transfer Petition · 2026 INSC 73Decided 20 Jan 2026
Transfer Petition (Crl.) No. 338 of 2025
Justice Rajesh Bindal · Justice Manmohan

Background

A wife's request to transfer a case between courts, combined with over 40 cross-cases filed by the couple over a decade of separation (following just 65 days of cohabitation), led her to separately ask the Supreme Court to dissolve the marriage outright, over the husband's objection.

Decision Breakdown

The Court explained a transfer petition simply asks to shift a case between courts. It doesn't decide the merits. Using its Article 142 power (per the Constitution Bench ruling in Shilpa Sailesh), the Court dissolved the marriage given its irretrievable breakdown, disposed of all pending cases between the couple except an ongoing perjury matter, and imposed a token cost on each side.

Lesson Learnt

Prolonged, multi-front litigation between estranged spouses is itself strong evidence a marriage has irretrievably broken down; the Supreme Court can dissolve such a marriage even without both parties' consent.

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

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