The Hindu Marriage Act does not apply to a Christian marriage with one party being Hindu for the purpose of seeking divorce under S. 13.

( 1 ) THIS appeal under S. 28 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, to be hereinafter referred to as 'the HM Act', is preferred against the order dt. 29-11-1991 made by the Court of Civil Judge at Udupi, to be hereinafter referred to as 'the trial Court', dismissing a petition under S. 13 of the HM Act seeking dissolution of a Christian marriage by a decree of divorce, as unmaintainable.

( 2 ) THE appellant and the respondent here were respectively the petitioner and the respondent in the petition before the trial Court. The marriage of the petitioner, who was a Christian, and the respondent, who was a Hindu, was solemnised on 17-3-1977 at St. Lawrence Church, Moodubelle, by the Paris Priest of that Church by adoption of Christian form of marriage. When the Christian wife of the said marriage, which was evidenced by the Certificate of Marriage dt. 7-7-1991 issued by the Paris Priest of the above Church, presented before the trial Court a petition under S. 13 (1) of the HM Act against her Hindu husband seeking dissolution of their marriage by a decree of divorce on the grounds available thereunder, that petition is dismissed as unmaintainable by an order dt. 29-11-1991 of the trial Court. It is that order which is appealed against in the present appeal by the Christian wife.

( 3 ) SRI G. S. Visweswara, learned counsel for the appellant-Christian wife, assailed before us, rather strenuously, the correctness of the trial Court's order, by which the petition filed by the Christian wife under S. 13 of the HM Act against her Hindu husband has been dismissed as unmaintainable. According to him, the HM Act, when, by its provision in S. 2, says that the HM Act applies to any person, who is a Hindu, and when, by its provision in S. 13 providing for divorce of a marriage, does not restrict its availability to a Hindu marriage, there can be no valid reason as to why its availability cannot be extended to a Christian marriage of which one of the parties is a Hindu. Further, according to him, the decision of a learned Judge of the Delhi High Court in Mrs. Pramilla Khosla v. Rajnish Kumar Khosla reported in AIR 1979 Delhi 78 supported his submission.

( 4 ) THE submission, on the basis of which the order of the trial Court under appeal is assailed by the learned Counsel for the appellant, since raise for our decision a short but somewhat curious question - whether a Christian marriage of which one of the parties was a Hindu, could be got dissolved by a decree of divorce under S. 13 of the HM Act at the instance of either party to such marriage, we shall proceed to consider the same.

( 5 ) THERE is no dispute nor can it be disputed that the marriage is a knot, by which a man and a woman get tied together as would confer upon them the status of husband and wife, while divorce is a snap on the knot of such marriage which divests its parties of their status as husband and wife and reverts them to their pre-marriage positions of man and woman.

( 6 ) 'the State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform Civil Code throughout the territory of India' though is an important and far-sighted directive in Art. 44 of our Constitution, by which the State is enjoined to enact a uniform Civil Code (law) for all citizens of India in substitution of diverse laws - personal laws by which marriages and matters connected thereto are governed at present in the fond hope of bringing about by marriage a better and real integration of citizens of diverse religions, faiths and cultures, such a uniform Civil Code has to still become a reality. Thus, when there is no uniform civil Code (law) which governs marriages between all citizens and the matters connected with such marriages, divorce of such marriages is not governed by any single Code (law ).

( 7 ) THE Special Marriage Act, 1954, provides for dissolution of marriages by decrees of divorce, only if such marriages had been either solemnised under that Act or having been solemnised in any other form, had come t

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