Call to amend Divorce Act

Chennai, Nov. 19: The Madras high court has suggested to the Union government that it bring an amendment to Section 2 of the Indian Divorce Act, which required the spouses belonging to Christianity be domiciled in India at the time of presentation of the divorce petition. Contending that if either of the spouses migrated to another country and the question of presentation of petition for dissolution of the marriage cropped up subsequently, the party, who stayed outside India, would not be able to present any petition as per law of the country. As at that stage, the other party could be considered to be domiciled in a foreign country, one Indira Rachel filed a petition to declare section 2 of the act as ultra vires. A division bench comprising justice P.K. Misra and justice A. Kulasekaran pointing out that the Act came into force in 1869 when such contingencies were not in contemplation. The provision should be interpreted to mean that the courts in India shall be entitled to entertain petition for dissolution of marriage. Where either of the parties to the marriage have domiciled in India at the time of presentation of the petition and such provision need not be construed as both the parties must be domiciled in India. “We feel to suggest that in order to avoid any further controversy, the Union ministry of law and justice may consider the question of making suitable amendment to section 2 of the Act,” the high court bench added.

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