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Vikas Kanaujia vs. Sarita

Not available · 2024 INSC 517Decided 10 Jul 2024
Not available
Justice Vikram Nath · Justice Satish Chandra Sharma

Background

The appellant husband, a doctor, and respondent wife, also a doctor, married in 2002 but lived together for barely 23 days before the wife left for her parental home; a brief 20-day reconciliation attempt in 2005 also failed. The husband obtained a divorce decree from the Family Court on the ground of cruelty in 2006, but the Allahabad High Court set it aside in 2019, holding that the wife had not deserted him of her own free will. Over the following two decades the couple fought roughly six legal battles against each other, including cross criminal complaints (which ended in acquittal/discharge for the husband's side) and maintenance proceedings, and the wife even filed a "missing person" complaint against the husband after the High Court's order.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court invoked its special power under Article 142 of the Constitution to grant a decree of divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage, relying on the Constitution Bench ruling in Shilpa Sailesh v. Varun Sreenivasan that this power can be used even when one spouse opposes divorce. It found that the parties had lived together for a total of only about 43 days in over 22 years of marriage, both were now in their early 50s with independent lives, and multiple rounds of litigation and mediation had failed to reconcile them, making continuation of the legal marital tie meaningless. Since both parties were financially independent professionals with equal earning capacity, the Court dissolved the marriage but declined to award any permanent alimony.

Lesson Learnt

Where a marriage has completely and irretrievably broken down (evidenced by prolonged separation, repeated failed reconciliation attempts, and years of mutual litigation) the Supreme Court can grant a divorce under Article 142 even without the consent of both spouses, since keeping a dead marriage alive on paper serves no one.

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

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