Easily entered love marriages lead to marital disputes: Allahabad High Court

While hearing an appeal in a divorce case recently, the Allahabad High Court expressed its views on love marriages, describing them as unions that are easy to enter but also prone to marital disputes. They said easily entered love marriages leading to matrimonial disputes. The divorce rate in love marriage is high.

"Easy-entry marriages, such as love marriages, frequently result in marital disputes between the couple. It makes no difference in matrimonial disputes Who is accountable for it? The parties are unwilling to continue the relationship due to marriage problems, or at least one party begins living separately. The division bench of Justices Vivek Kumar Birla and Donadi Ramesh stated: "These facts emerge from our experience dealing with such disputes."As a result, the bench emphasized the importance of updating the grounds for divorce either in love marriage or arrange marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act to reflect current circumstances. "In light of this changing time and experience, the Courts cannot remain mute witnesses to such everyday realities of life. The courts are accountable to the litigant seeking justice. Needless to say, the law must evolve with the times," the bench said.

Facts of the case

A doctor who had served in the Indian Army for about 30 years filed an appeal against the Family Court's refusal to grant him divorce from his wife, who was also a senior doctor. In 2007, the couple married for the second time. The wife allegedly abandoned her husband six years before he filed for divorce in 2015, citing cruelty as grounds. However, the Family Court rejected the husband's case, prompting an appeal to the High Court in 2019. The wife did not participate in the proceedings and thus was tried ex parte.

The husband's main argument before the High Court was that his wife's prolonged absence constituted mental cruelty. Considering the submissions, the Court noted that the Supreme Court has long recognized the irretrievable breakdown of marriage as a ground for divorce.

Issue:

Is it possible to grant a divorce decree simply because the marriage has irretrievably broken down?

Judgement:

The Court stated that in the case of Naveen Kohli Vs. Neelu Kohli (2006), the Supreme Court strongly advised the Union of India to seriously consider amending the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 to include irretrievable breakdown of marriage as a ground for divorce.

Even after 18 years, nothing has been done in this regard. On the one hand, the law recognizes a petitioner's desertion for a continuous period of not less than two years immediately preceding the presentation of the petition as one of the grounds for the grant of divorce, whereas on the other hand, it is incomprehensible why the ground of irretrievable breakdown is not recognized as one of the grounds when the parties have been living separately for so many years, and in some cases, decades together," the bench emphasized.

The court stated that in many cases, the matrimonial life between the parties is only for the namesake, whereas the marriage has become completely unworkable and emotionally dead, even if the respondent insists on continuing with such an emotionally dead relationship.

"It is only, for this reason, recognizing ground realities of such a dead relationship, it is being consistently felt by the Hon'ble Apex Court that continuance of such unworkable matrimonial". Ties are nothing but mental cruelty on the parties and, at the very least, on the petitioner, even when the other party opposes the divorce petition," the Supreme Court stated. In its entirety, the document states that "irretrievable breakdown is an assessment of circumstances prevailing in lives of the parties to the marriage and if proved, would amount to mental cruelty".

As a result, the bench directed the Registrar (Compliance) to send a copy of the judgment to the Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice, Department of Legal Affairs, Government of India, and the Law Commission so that they could consider the matter in light of the Supreme Court's observations in the Naveen Kohli case and other judgments.

Furthermore, in the case at hand, the bench noted that the petitioner, who married in 2007 (their second marriage), had problems, with his wife allegedly leaving six years before he filed for divorce in 2015, citing cruelty.

The court ruled that because the marriage was completely unworkable and emotionally dead, it was irretrievably broken, and the case had to be construed as one of ' mental cruelty' against the petitioner-husband.

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