The order of divorce given by the foreign court ought to be legitimate. Foreign court judgment of divorce or termination of marriage can be valid in India given such pronouncement is in accordance with the divorce law in India as set by the Indian courts. An outside court divorce verdict might be legitimate in India only if the other spouse had lived in that nation and had agreed to that country’s jurisdiction.
Law for Divorce Varies From Country To Country
The marriage and divorce laws vary from nation to nation. The concern of divorce order not being legal comes up if the residence of one spouse is in one nation and one of them decides to get divorce in a foreign nation. It has turned exceptionally common that individuals after marriage relocate to various nations either to live there for the short term or permanently.
Let us do an analysis of divorce judgment granted by Foreign Courts:
Divorce Decree Granted By Foreign Courts Can Be Classified Into Two Categories:
- Mutual consent divorce decree
- Contested divorce decree
When it comes to mutual consent or consensual divorce order, the verdict conceded by a Foreign Court is viewed as a lawful, valid and official decree in the Indian Courts by the virtue of Section 13 & Section 14 of the Indian Civil Procedure Code, in which Section 13 lists the conditions when a judgment given by foreign court shall not be viewed as legitimate in India and Section 14 clearly states that when the Indian Courts would deem the Foreign judgment to be the final one. A verdict which isn’t affected by Section 13 need not be approved again in India and will be viewed as final under Section 14 of the Civil Procedure Act.
In any case, for a situation where a divorce verdict is conceded by a Foreign Court in a contested divorce the answer to the question of the legitimacy of the divorce order differs.
A Foreign Divorce Verdict Will Be Viewed As Valid And Final In The Following Cases:
- It is a general principle that in the event that one of the spouses contest the divorce plea filed in a foreign country it would be said that he/she agreed to the jurisdiction of that Court, in such a case the pronouncement would be viewed as a final one.
- If the spouse agrees to the divorce decree of the foreign Court in spite of the fact that the jurisdiction of the foreign Court isn’t as per the Divorce Law of parties involved, to be legitimate and the verdict given by those foreign Courts to be final.
To wrap up, we can say that a divorce order given by a Foreign Court has to be either executed under Section 44A or a new suit must be petitioned for its enforcement. A foreign divorce verdict is viewed as final under Section 14 of the Civil Procedure Code in the event that it passes the test under Section 13 of the said Code.
