Overview
- Setting aside the Uttarakhand High Court’s decree, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi ordered fresh adjudication of the husband’s divorce plea.
- The Supreme Court directed the High Court to determine who caused the separation, examine the effect of an earlier petition’s withdrawal, and assess alleged cruelty.
- The order cautioned that declaring a marriage irretrievably broken without cogent evidence can harm children and requires deep analysis of the parties’ social circumstances.
- The Court noted the wife’s plea that she was forced out of the matrimonial home and recorded that the child has been in her custody from the outset.
- It reiterated that “irretrievable breakdown of marriage” is not a statutory ground under the Hindu Marriage Act, urging lower courts nationwide to avoid shortcuts based on mere separation.