Most Divorces Arising From Love Marriages, Observes Supreme Court

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New Delhi: In a telling observation, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday that most divorces in this country seem to be arising from love marriages.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sanjay Karol made the observation while hearing a transfer petition arising out of a matrimonial dispute between a man and woman who had a love marriage.

The top court said that in view of a recent judgment, it could grant a divorce without his consent, reported Bar and Bench. The justices then proposed mediation between the couple, though the husband wasn’t keen.

The Supreme Court earlier this month said that grant of divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not a “matter of right” but a discretion which is to be exercised with great care and caution, to ensure “complete justice” is done to both parties.

A five-judge constitution bench, headed by Justice S K Kaul, stated that the top court should be fully convinced and satisfied that marriage is “totally unworkable, emotionally dead and beyond salvation” and therefore, dissolution of marriage is the right solution and the only way forward.

The Supreme Court had made these observations while delivering its verdict that the top court has the discretion to dissolve a marriage on the ground of “irretrievable breakdown” in exercise of its plenary power under Article 142 (1) of the Constitution and can grant divorce by mutual consent while dispensing with the six-month waiting period mandated under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.