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ShareWhen Walkeshwar Road residents Minakshi and Subodh (names changed) tied the knot in Japan 36 years ago, little did they imagine that their marriage as per the Japanese law would complicate their parting.
In 2003, Subodh filed a divorce petition in a Mumbai family court under the Hindu Marriage Act. However, the Bombay High Court last week held that a couple married in a foreign land and having registered the marriage under the Foreign Marriage Act can be governed only by the Special Marriage Act.
Minakshi had moved HC challenging a family court order that rejected her application that her husband's divorce petition under the Hindu Marriage Act was not maintainable. Upholding Minakshi's argument justice Nishita Mhatre rejected Subodh's divorce petition on December 10. "Once a marriage is registered under the Foreign Marriage Act, the parties cannot contend that they are governed by any other Act but the Foreign Marriage Act," the HC held.
Subodh will have to pursue divorce proceedings under the Special Marriage Act.
Minakshi's marriage was solemnised in the Sumiyoshi Temple, Osaka, Japan, by a Japanese priest in accordance with Japanese rites. On November 16, 1972, the Consulate General of India at Kobe issued a marriage registration certificate under the Foreign Marriage Act.
The family court did not accept the certificate as proof of registration under the Foreign Marriage Act stating that "normally two Hindus do not prefer to enter into the marriage ceremony in any other form, except Hindu form of marriage..." The HC held that the reason given by the family court for disbelieving that the marriage was solemnised under the Japanese religious rites was "unsustainable and utterly unwarranted". "One cannot generalise that two Hindus would not be married in any other form, but in accordance with the Vedic rites," the HC stated.
The court also held that the certificate of registration of the marriage issued by the consulate general was conclusive proof of the marriage being solemnised by following Japanese rituals and not under the Hindu Marriage Act.
