In Brief
A husband and wife married in 2002 under Hindu rites, but the marriage never consummated and broke down immediately. After 16 years of litigation across three courts, the trial court granted divorce on irretrievable breakdown, but the High Court's appellate process reversed it before the High Court eventually restored it. The wife, despite living separately for two decades and never cohabiting, contested the divorce. The Supreme Court held that where a marriage is emotionally dead and irretrievably broken from inception, and one party engages in harassment, repeated litigation, false criminal complaints, and threats to damage the other's career, the Court can grant divorce both under Article 142 (irretrievable breakdown) and under Section 13(1)(i-a) (cruelty) of the Hindu Marriage Act, without requiring mutual consent.
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