Shilpa Sailesh vs Varun Sreenivasan
Background
This matter began as a transfer petition between a husband and wife (whose own marriage was already dissolved by mutual consent via Article 142 back in 2015) but was kept pending because it raised a recurring legal question affecting thousands of matrimonial cases: can the Supreme Court, using its special "complete justice" power under Article 142(1) of the Constitution, dissolve a marriage by mutual consent without making couples wait out the mandatory six-month "cooling off" period under Section 13-B of the Hindu Marriage Act, and can it grant divorce even against one spouse's wishes where the marriage has irretrievably broken down (a ground Parliament has never actually written into the divorce law)? A five-judge Constitution Bench was set up to settle conflicting past rulings on this point.
Decision Breakdown
The Court held that its Article 142(1) power lets it depart from ordinary procedural and even substantive law requirements when necessary to do complete justice, so long as it doesn't override fundamental rights or express constitutional/statutory prohibitions. It ruled that the Court can waive the six-month statutory waiting period for a second divorce motion where the marriage is genuinely, irretrievably dead, and can also quash connected proceedings (such as domestic violence complaints, maintenance cases, or criminal cases under Section 498-A IPC) as part of a comprehensive settlement. The Court further held it can grant divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage, a ground not found in the Hindu Marriage Act, even if one spouse objects, but only as a matter of careful, case-specific discretion, not as a matter of right, weighing factors like length of separation (ordinarily six years or more), the nature of mutual allegations, past reconciliation attempts, and crucially, ensuring fair alimony and provision for any dependent spouse or children. It clarified that ordinary litigants cannot invoke this route by directly filing a writ petition under Article 32; it exists as a power only this Court can exercise in a pending "cause or matter" before it.
Lesson Learnt
A marriage that has completely and irreversibly broken down can, in appropriate cases, be ended by the Supreme Court exercising its special constitutional power, even without both spouses' consent and without going through years of contested litigation in the lower courts, but only the Supreme Court can grant this relief directly, and only after carefully weighing fairness to both spouses, particularly maintenance and child welfare; the ordinary divorce process before family courts, including the statutory waiting period, otherwise remains the norm.