New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that a divorce decree granted by a foreign court on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage is legally invalid. A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar made the observation while rejecting a man's plea to quash a case registered against him for bigamy and criminal conspiracy. "In our view, the foreign divorce decree was passed in contravention of the existing matrimonial law in India and on a ground that is not even recognised statutorily," the bench stated, as quoted by PTI. "This not only violates the legal threshold of Section 13 of the CPC, which every foreign decree has to pass through, but also the observations made by this Court as to the conditions required to be fulfilled by a foreign decree to be enforceable in India," the bench said. Dealing with the case, the top court said the sanctity of matrimonial status cannot be allowed to yield to such 'forum non conveniens' (inconvenient forum). "We cannot accept this submission in the manner canvassed, as accused No. 1/husband was married to respondent No. 2/first wife in India under Hindu rites, rituals and customs. "Thus, even if the second marriage took place outside India, the allegations under Section 494 of the IPC cannot be said to be diluted, since the inquiry into the offence of bigamy cannot be confined to the place of the second marriage but must necessarily take into account the subsisting matrimonial relationship," the bench said. In this case, the man married his first wife on April 18, 2003, in Sattenapalli, Andhra Pradesh, according to Hindu rites and customs. After the marriage, they resided in Hyderabad, where the husband was pursuing postgraduate studies at Osmania Medical College. On February 4, 2005, the man went to the UK to pursue his career as a doctor and was later joined by his wife. In August 2007, the first wife returned to her parental home in Sattenapalli for delivery. The man claimed that despite repeated requests, she did not return to the UK. As the matrimonial relationship between the couple deteriorated, the husband instituted divorce and custody proceedings before the competent court in Narasaraopet, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. The proceedings were dismissed. He later filed an appeal in the High Court, but subsequently withdrew it. The husband was granted UK citizenship on February 1, 2013, and instituted divorce proceedings against his first wife before the Cambridge County Court in England. The court granted him a divorce in 2014 on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage. Nearly two years later, the first wife lodged a complaint at the Sattenapalli Town Police Station in Guntur under Sections 494 and 120B read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. While refusing to quash the case against the man, the top court quashed the criminal proceedings against his parents and second wife. Sumit Sharma is a Deputy News Editor at Times Now with around a decade of experience across print, electronic, and digital media. Previously, he worke... View More