Divorce on grounds of Irretrievable breakdown of marriage.

Published On - November 20, 2021

Adv V.K. Singh

Marriage is totally unworkable, emotionally dead, beyond salvage of  Irretrievable breakdown of marriage:  Supreme Court invokes Article 142 to grant divorce

In a series of judgments, has exercised its inherent powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India for dissolution of a marriage where the Court finds that the marriage is totally unworkable, emotionally dead, beyond salvage and has broken down irretrievably, even if the facts of the case do not provide a ground in law on which the divorce could be granted. In the present case, admittedly, the appellant­husband and the respondent­wife have been living separately for more than 22 years and it will not be possible for the parties to live together. Therefore, we are of the opinion that while protecting the interest of the respondent­wife to compensate her by way of lump sum permanent alimony, this is a fit case to exercise the powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India and to dissolve the marriage between the parties.

In view of the above and for the reasons stated above, the application for divorce filed by the appellant­husband for dissolution of marriage is hereby allowed. The marriage between the appellant­husband and the respondent­wife is ordered to be dissolved in exercise of powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India on the condition and as agreed by the learned Senior Advocate appearing on behalf of the appellant­ husband that the appellant­husband shall pay to the respondent­ wife a lump sum permanent alimony, quantified at Rs.20,00,000/­ (Rupees Twenty Lakhs) to be paid directly to the respondent­wife by way of demand draft within a period of eight weeks from today. Till the permanent alimony as above is paid to the respondent­wife, the appellant­husband to continue to pay the maintenance as being paid to her.

In the case of Naveen Kohli (supra), a three Judge Bench of this Court has observed as under:

“74. ……Once the marriage has broken down beyond repair, it would be unrealistic for the law not to take notice of that fact, and it would be harmful to society and injurious to the interests of the parties. Where there has been a long period of continuous separation, it may fairly be surmised that the matrimonial bond is beyond repair. The marriage becomes a fiction, though supported by a legal tie. By refusing to sever that tie the law in such cases does not serve the sanctity of marriage; on the contrary, it shows scant regard for the feelings and emotions of the parties.

  1. Undoubtedly, it is the obligation of the court and all concerned that the marriage status should, as far as possible, as long as possible and whenever possible, be maintained, but when the marriage is totally dead, in that event, nothing is gained by trying to keep the parties tied forever to a marriage which in fact has ceased to exist….
  2. In view of the fact that the parties have been living separately for more than 10 years and a very large number of aforementioned criminal and civil proceedings have been initiated by the respondent against the appellant and some proceedings have been initiated by the appellant against the respondent, the matrimonial bond between the parties is beyond repair.———————