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Vishal Shah v. Monalisha Gupta

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 254Decided 20 Feb 2025
Criminal Appeal arising out of SLP (Crl.) No(s). 4297 of 2023
Justice Pankaj Mithal · Justice Sandeep Mehta

Background

A husband and wife married in India in 2018 and moved to the USA, where the husband worked as a software engineer. The marriage broke down after only about 80 days amid allegations of mutual abuse, and the wife returned to India while the husband went back to the USA alone. The wife then filed multiple criminal, matrimonial and domestic-violence cases against the husband and his family across different courts in India, and a trial court in Howrah directed authorities to begin extradition proceedings against him, which the Calcutta High Court upheld; separately, his passport had been impounded without being given a hearing first.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that impounding the husband's passport without first giving him an opportunity to be heard violated the principles of natural justice and was illegal, and directed its release within a week. Exercising its special power under Article 142 of the Constitution to do complete justice, the Court dissolved the marriage on the ground of irretrievable breakdown, quashed the orders directing extradition, and directed that all pending criminal, domestic-violence and civil cases between the parties and their families stand closed. As a condition, the husband was directed to pay Rs. 25 lakh as permanent alimony to the wife.

Lesson Learnt

A passport cannot be impounded under the Passports Act without first giving the holder a chance to respond, and the Supreme Court can use its special constitutional powers to cut through years of multiplying litigation between an estranged couple by ending the marriage and closing all related cases at once, when reconciliation is clearly impossible.

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

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