Supreme Court exercises jurisdiction under Article 142 to grant divorce through video conferencing

In an uncommon development, the Supreme Court recently allowed an application for divorce by mutual consent through video conferencing and awarded decree for dissolution of marriage in virtual hearing (Madhuri Jajoo vs Manoj Jajoo)..The single Judge Bench of Justice V Ramasubramanian allowed plea for mutual dissolution of the marriage between the parties while hearing a case for transferring the proceedings from Telangana to Kolkata..Earlier in this case, the Court had referred the parties to Supreme Court's mediation centre for arriving at a settlement. A settlement agreement was drawn up in November 2019..Under the terms of the settlement, the parties made a joint application under Article 142 of the Constitution seeking a decree for dissolution of the marriage by mutual consent. The Court records,."Under the terms of the settlement, a joint application has been made by the parties in I.A. No. 52648 of 2020 praying for a decree of dissolution of marriage by mutual consent by invoking jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution of India.".The settlement agreement drawn up prescribed for a sum of Rs. 57,50,000 to be paid by the husband to the wife. The receipt of this amount was confirmed by the counsel for both parties when the matter was taken up for hearing on June 12..Additionally, the petitioner (wife) who was present in the video conferencing proceedings also confirmed before the Court of having received the amount agreed upon..Therefore, on finding that the terms of the settlement have been complied with, the Court granted a decree of divorce or dissolution of marriage by mutual consent and effectively disposed of the transfer petition as well as other pending applications, if any.."Since the entire payment is recorded in the settlement agreement has been paid, the parties have no further or other obligations against each other."Supreme Court.The Supreme Court, therefore, granted divorce by mutual consent through video conferencing. The Court recorded in its ruling,."The marriage solemnized between the parties on 31.05.2001 shall stand dissolved by a decree of divorce by mutual consent.".The petitioner was represented by Advocate Rashmi Singhania and the respondent was represented by Susmit Pushkar..Read Order: