Hon’ble Supreme Court while dealing with a petition here on 06.03.2019 in the case of “SWAPNANJALI SANDEEP PATIL v. SANDEEP ANANDA PATIL” stated that in the absence of any evidence about a customary divorce, the subsequent marriage becomes void.

BRIEF FACTS OF THE CASE

The appellant herein married with respondent on 05.04.2010. Later on the appellant came across a Xerox copy of Marriage Dissolution Deed, dated 14.12.2009 between the respondent and his first wife and she realized that the respondent had married her without obtaining the decree of divorce from the competent court and that at that time of marriage the respondent was having a living spouse.

Therefore, the appellant-wife filed Marriage Petition No.55 of 2012 in the Court of District Court, Pune under Section 25 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954, for declaration of marriage as null and void. The trial court rejected the application and in appeal Bombay High Court also rejected the same.

Thus, this petition was filed.

DECISION OF THE COURT

Hon’ble Court held that in the absence of any evidence about a customary divorce, the subsequent marriage becomes void.

Thus, the appellant was entitled to a decree of nullity of the marriage between the appellant and the respondent and the appeal was allowed.

Read the full judgement here-

[embeddoc url=”https://www.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2016/24112/24112_2016_Judgement_06-Mar-2019.pdf” download=”all”]