Spouses living separately not ground for divorce, courts must identify who broke the marriage: Supreme Court
Court mandates that divorce should not be granted solely based on separation without determining responsibility for the breakdown
The Supreme Court has observed that courts should not presume a marriage to be “irretrievably broken down” or grant divorce merely because spouses are living separately. A Bench of Justice Surya Kant (now Chief Justice of India) and Justice Joymalya Bagchi emphasized the need for courts to first establish which party was responsible for the separation before dissolving the marriage.
The Court criticized a recent trend where courts quickly conclude marital breakdown based solely on living arrangements, without thoroughly assessing whether one spouse deserted the other willfully or if separation was due to circumstances beyond control. This issue is particularly significant when children are involved.
The Court highlighted its duty to analyze all evidence, social circumstances, and backgrounds of the parties before reaching conclusions in matrimonial matters. The remarks came in a case where the husband’s earlier divorce petition was withdrawn, but he later filed another petition claiming desertion. The trial court denied the petition based on lack of evidence, but the Uttarakhand High Court reversed the decision and granted divorce while ignoring the wife’s claims of being forced out and raising the child alone.
The Supreme Court set aside the divorce order and remanded the matter to the High Court for a fresh hearing, underscoring the importance of a fair, evidence-based determination in marital disputes.