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Rinku Baheti vs Sandesh Sharda

Not available · 2024 INSC 1014Decided 19 Dec 2024
Not available

Background

The wife had filed a transfer petition seeking to move her husband's divorce petition (filed in Bhopal) to a family court in Pune. During the pendency of this petition, the husband applied for the Supreme Court to exercise its special power under Article 142 of the Constitution to directly grant a divorce on the ground that the marriage, a second marriage for both parties, had irretrievably broken down. Multiple criminal cases were also pending between the parties, including serious allegations by the wife against the husband under the IPC and IT Act.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court exercised its extraordinary power under Article 142(1) to dissolve the marriage on the ground of irretrievable breakdown, without needing to first decide the transfer petition on its own terms. As part of a comprehensive settlement, the Court quashed the pending criminal cases and connected proceedings between the parties, directed the husband to pay Rs.12 crore as full and final permanent alimony plus Rs.3 lakh in litigation costs within one month, and directed the wife to vacate properties belonging to the husband's father in Pune and Bhopal within two months of receiving the payment.

Lesson Learnt

The Supreme Court can use its special constitutional power to cut through a stalled and acrimonious matrimonial dispute, dissolving an irretrievably broken marriage and settling connected criminal cases and financial claims together, rather than leaving parties to litigate each issue separately for years.

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

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