Sukhendu Das v. Rita Mukherjee
Background
The appellant and respondent, both District Judges in West Bengal, married in 1992 under the Special Marriage Act and had a daughter in 1993. They had lived separately since 2000 after matrimonial discord, and the husband sought divorce alleging cruelty and desertion. The wife contested the petition but thereafter did not participate in person at any stage, not before the trial court after filing her written statement, not before the High Court, and not before the Supreme Court's Mediation Centre despite repeated notices.
Decision Breakdown
Both the trial court and the Calcutta High Court had dismissed the husband's divorce plea, holding that he had not proved cruelty and that irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not itself a ground for divorce under the Act. The Supreme Court, without going into the disputed facts, held that the wife's persistent refusal to participate in the proceedings and forcing the husband to remain in a dead marriage itself amounted to mental cruelty, and that after 17 years of separation there was no realistic possibility of reconciliation. Exercising its special power under Article 142 of the Constitution to do complete justice, the Court allowed the appeal and granted the divorce, even though the facts as such did not squarely satisfy a statutory ground.
Lesson Learnt
The Supreme Court can use its Article 142 power to dissolve a marriage that is irretrievably broken down even where ordinary matrimonial law would not provide a clean-cut ground, but this power is reserved for the Supreme Court itself and is not available to trial courts or High Courts.