The Supreme Court has ruled that the consent of the parties is not required under Article 142 of the Constitution to order the dissolution of marriage on the grounds of irretrievable breakdown.
In this case, the High Court overturned a decree of dissolution of a couple’s marriage. Previously, the Family Court granted the husband’s petition for divorce based on cruelty.
Referring to the facts of the case, the Supreme Court bench stated that nothing is presented to justify a decree of dissolution of marriage on the basis of cruelty. The court noted that the parties had been living apart for more than 22 years, beginning on January 18, 2000.
Referring to previous decisions in R. Srinivas Kumar v. R. Shametha (2019) 9 SCC 409, Munish Kakkar v. Nidhi Kakkar (2020) 14 SCC 657, and Sivasankaran v. Santhimeenal 2021 SCC Online SC 702, the court stated that the parties’ consent is not required to declare a marriage dissolved.
As a result, the bench declared the marriage dissolved while observing that there is no possibility of reconciliation between the appellant and the respondent for reasons that are entirely due to the appellant’s actions and cannot be blamed on the respondent. The appellant and respondent’s marriage is no longer alive.
Source : https://lawtrend.in/whether-consent-of-parties-required-for-dissolution-of-marriage-on-ground-of-irretrievable-breakdown-of-marriage-answers-supreme-court/