Marriage sacrosanct amongst Hindus: Uttarakhand High Court imposes ₹1 lakh costs on man for fraudulent divorce

Stating that the institution of marriage is sacrosanct to Hindus, the Uttarakhand High Court recently imposed costs of ₹1 lakh on a man for fraudulently obtaining a divorce decree [Mahendra Prasad Dwivedi v. Lajji Devi]..A Bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Ramesh Chandra Khulbe, while dismissing the appeal, observed that the husband should have fairly and squarely separated from his wife before filing the divorce petition instead of continuing to live with her even after filing the same."The appellant, by his aforesaid conduct, has gravely undermined the institution of marriage which is sacrosanct amongst the Hindus - the religion to which the parties belong," the Court therefore said..Before the High Court, the appellant husband had challenged a family court order allowing his wife's application seeking to set aside the ex-parte divorce decree obtained by him. The lower court had granted the decree in his favour after the wife had failed to appear to contest the proceedings..However, the Division Bench took note of the fact that during the pendency of the divorce proceedings, the husband continued to reside with the wife. It was also recorded that in the appeal, the address of both the parties was shown to be the same. .The wife further informed the Court that she had not signed the summons issued by the family court, and that her signatures had been forged by the husband. Therefore, she said that the order suffered from patent illegality and deserved to be recalled. .In this regard, the Court stressed that while residing together under the same roof and having three children, there was complete and implicit faith that the two spouses reposed in each other."Therefore, if the husband were to - casually, ask his wife to sign a particular document, she would unhesitatingly sign the same without even enquiring as to what is the document on which her signatures are being obtained. She would not even care to remember the fact that she has actually signed a document on the instructions of her husband," the Bench explained.The Court, therefore, concluded that the appellant misled his wife and contrived to obtain her signatures on the summons..Out of the costs imposed, ₹50,000 was to be paid to the wife and the rest would be deposited with the State Legal Services Authority within four weeks..Advocate Navnish Negi represented the appellant..[Read Order]