Indian cases cannot be entertained in Foreign Jurisdiction

There are several situations seen in the matrimonial issues, wherein a court case of divorce proceeding is already going on but another spouse couldn’t wait for the divorce decree to come, and hassle to marry again with another person.

As the law says, you are not permitted to legally wed another person while your divorce case is still active in court, regardless of whether it is a contested or mutually consenting divorce. In actuality, the Hindu Marriage Act governs the parties and states that you cannot get married again until six months have passed since the date of your divorce decree.

Ruling by the Delhi High Court:

A recent Delhi High Court verdict expressed a serious view of a case in which the Husband purposefully avoided service in the divorce proceedings filed by his wife in India, refused to appear before the Court here, and filed a separate divorce case in Canadian Court.

The Hon’ble Justice Amit Bansal’s Single Judge Bench issued an interim injunction against the husband, preventing him from proceeding with the divorce petition he filed in the Canadian Court. The Court was hearing an application filed by the wife seeking an interim order barring the defendant’s husband from proceeding with his divorce suit filed in Canadian Court.

Fact of the case:

The plaintiff filed a divorce petition against the defendant at the Family Court, Saket, New Delhi on December 16, 2020, which has been pending for over a year, and the defendant has avoided service in the aforementioned matter. The defendant started a divorce action in Canada on December 13, 2021, in order to harass the plaintiff.”

Counsel from the side of the plaintiff has requested that urgent interim orders be issued in this case. It is argued that the parties are in a husband-and-wife relationship. Due to matrimonial difficulties, the plaintiff initiated divorce proceedings by filing a complaint against the defendant on December 16, 2020, which is currently pending before the Family Court in Saket, New Delhi. Despite the fact that a summons was issued in that litigation on February 25th, 2021, the defendant had not yet appeared before the learned Family Court, either personally or through a pleader.

 It is further claimed that the defendant was in India at the time and responded to a legal notice given by the plaintiff on February 10, 2021, through a lawyer whose office is also in New Delhi. In that response, the defendant’s address was confirmed as E-28, Neb Valley, Sainik Farms, New Delhi-110068. However, it is claimed that in September 2021, the defendant relocated to Toronto, Canada, with his children. Following that, on December 13, 2021, he is said to have filed a divorce action against the plaintiff at a court there.

Judgment passed:

To summarise, the Delhi High Court correctly prohibits the husband from pursuing the matrimonial case in Canada while his wife’s divorce suit is pending in India. As a result, the Court views the defendant’s purposeful avoidance of service in the divorce proceedings in India very seriously, while continuing to pursue the divorce action brought by him before the Canadian Court. As a result, the Delhi High Court correctly barred the defendant from proceeding with the divorce suit that he filed before the Superior Court of Justice, Ontario, Toronto, Canada. There’s no denying it!