MARY SONIZ ZACHARIAH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A Full Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has, in emphatic terms, recommended for updating the statute. (Videweena v. John - AIR 1985 M. P. 85 ). A Full Bench of the Calcutta High Court has said in Swapna Ghosh v. Sadananda Ghosh (AIR 1989 Calcutta 1) thus: "we are inclined to think that our Parliament or the state Legislatures (Marriage and Divorce being matters in the Concurrent List)should very seriously consider the question of introducing similar amendments in the Divorce Act of 1869 to bring it in harmonious conformity with other analogous enactments on the subject governing the other communities in India". Unfortunate it is that despite repeated exortations from several High Courts in India, the antiquated statute remains what it was originally.

(2.) WITHOUT establishing adultery of the other spouse a decree for divorce is unthinkable under the Indian Divorce Act. Those spouses who found their matrimonial lives irretrievably broken down remain helpless in view of the unrealistic and unhelpful provisions of the Indian Divorce Act. (A decree declaring the marriage null and void can be passed if it is established that opposite party was insane at the time of marriage ). Thus, unless one of the spouses was insane, or one of them is guilty of adultery, Indian Divorce act will not help a spouse to get out of the marriage alliance. As the legislature did not help them till now, some of them invented devices to wriggle out the imbroglio. One device is to undergo a marriage again under the special Marriage Act and then apply for a decree for divorce under that law. Some other spouses, in order to surmount the difficulty, collide between each other, so that one of them would make false allegations of adultery against the other and the latter would remain ex parte. Some others would make false pretence of being insane in order to obtain a decree declaring the marriage null and void. Through these devices, they try to escape from shattered matrimonial bondage. Those others who are not willing to adopt dishonest devices continue to suffer without escape under the primitive marriage law.