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RAJESH S. PATIL
Shikha Lodha – Appellant
Versus
Suketu Shah – Respondent
JUDGMENT
RULE. Rule made returnable forthwith and by consent of both the counsel, taken up for final hearing.
2. This writ petition challenges judgment and order dated 21 April, 2022 passed by the Family Court, Mumbai thereby rejecting the application filed by the petitioner (wife) and holding that the Family Court, Mumbai has jurisdiction to entertain and decide the Divorce Petition filed by Husband.
3. The petitioner (wife) and respondent (husband) got married according to Hindu Vedic Rites and Rituals on 7 June, 2015 at Jodhpur, Rajasthan. After their marriage at Jodhpur, there was a wedding reception in a Hotel, at Grant Road, Mumbai on 11 June, 2015.
4. Thereafter, the petitioner (wife) and respondent (husband) stayed in Mumbai in the parents’ house of the husband. On 15 June, 2015, the husband left for U.S.A. as even before the marriage he was residing in U.S.A. and working in U.S.A. Soon thereafter, even the wife on 1 August, 2015 left for U.S.A. and started residing with the husband and was also working in U.S.A.
5. Admittedly, on 15 October, 2019 due to matrimonial issues arising out of the wedlock, the wife and the husband separated when they were residing in U.S.A.
6. On
Wedding reception cannot be called as a part of marriage ritual.
Jurisdiction cannot be denied under the Hindu Marriage Act due to prior marriage location in a now foreign territory.
The jurisdiction over matrimonial disputes involving Hindus married in India remains under Indian law, regardless of their foreign citizenship, thus invalidating foreign divorce decrees not adhering ....
A marriage established under the Hindu Marriage Act remains valid and binding regardless of subsequent foreign citizenship, thus Indian courts have jurisdiction over related matrimonial disputes.
The resolution of jurisdictional issues in divorce proceedings is best determined by the trial court based on factual disputes; mere inconvenience does not warrant a transfer.
In divorce proceedings, the correct jurisdiction is determined by the place where the parties last resided together in a matrimonial relationship, emphasizing continuity and permanence.
A court cannot raise a lack of territorial jurisdiction if it previously accepted jurisdiction without objection from either party, aiming to facilitate resolution of matrimonial disputes.
The central legal point established in the judgment is that the issue of territorial jurisdiction in a divorce case is a mixed question of law and facts and cannot be decided in a piecemeal manner.
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