AHMEDABAD: Getting a divorce decree from her previous marriage paradoxically resulted in the nullification of her second marriage for a Rajkot woman. Her second husband obtained evidence to establish that her first marriage was still valid when the second marriage took place.
The wife maintained that she separated from her first husband through a deed of customary divorce prior to the second marriage. Her second husband, who was also a divorcee at the time, was cognisant of this fact but manipulated her into procuring a divorce decree from court.
According to the case details, the couple wed in May 2013. It was the second marriage for both parties, with the wife separating from her first husband via a customary divorce deed in 2012 and the man obtaining a divorce from his first wife in Feb 2013. Subsequently, discord developed between them, with the woman alleging her husband’s extramarital liaisons, including a relationship with his first wife.
In 2017, the man petitioned a Rajkot family court seeking a declaration that his second marriage be deemed null and void. He referenced the divorce decree his wife obtained in May 2016 from a court regarding her previous marriage. He contended that his wife’s customary divorce deed of 2012 was invalid as the provision of customary divorce was not applicable in their caste. He asserted that his wife’s previous marriage remained valid during her second marriage.
The woman contested the second husband’s suit and alleged that he had proposed to take her abroad, and asked her to apply for the divorce decree for visa purposes. After obtaining the decree, the husband sought a declaration that the second marriage was void.
A family court in Rajkot accepted the woman’s position and dismissed the husband’s suit, stating that the husband was aware of the customary divorce deed, had lived as married for over three years, and filed the suit to exploit the legal provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
When the husband appealed before the HC, it deemed the family court’s order “perverse” and overturned it. This was because the HC found no evidence supporting the woman’s claim that she obtained the divorce decree on her husband’s instruction. The HC stated, “The trial court clearly fell in error in opining that the present application was with a view to take a false shelter of the legal provisions.”
