Recently, a piece of news surfaced where a man from Gwalior got his divorce settled with his first wife after 38 years of filing the divorce application. The man, now a retired engineer, was married to a girl in the year 1981 and filed for a divorce with her after 4 years of marriage in 1985. The case spiraled so badly and was messed up in the dreadlocks of the judicial system that it took him 38 years to finally have the case settled. He even got married the second time and have children, who are married by the time he is getting his divorce from his first marriage settled out.
What Exactly Happened?
An engineer from Bhopal was married to a girl from Gwalior in 1981. 4 years after their marriage, the man filed for divorce in Bhopal court. The reason, as stated by him, was that his wife could not bear any child and that’s why he wants to end the relationship. Both of them started living separately after this. The man’s case was dismissed by the Bhopal court so he went ahead and filed a petition in the Vidisha court.
The wife’s Point of View
Although the man wanted to divorce his wife, she wanted to continue the relationship. In December 1989, she filed a petition to the Family Court of Gwalior for the restoration of relations. The court, however, kept the man’s best interest in light and considered him eligible for divorce, and gave the decision in his favour.
Years of Judicial Struggle
In 1990, the man remarried but the first wife went to the court to appeal against the divorce order. Her case was accepted by the court. The matter kept delaying until 2002 when the Vidisha court dismissed the man’s appeal. He then went to High Court in 2006 and later filed an SPL in the Supreme Court, both of which got dismissed by the court.
The man again went to the Vidisha court in 2008 but his case was dismissed 7 years later in 2015. He then filed an appeal in the Gwalior Bench of the High Court for a divorce. He was by then married and already had two children, both of whom were married as well.
Present Situation
Finally, both parties have consented to a mutual divorce arrangement and the final hearing would be on February 2024. The man was asked by the court to pay his first wife a lump sum of 12 lakh rupees. The wife agreed as her brothers advised that she should stop fighting the case as they are now getting old.
Marriages in India
Though we Indians consider marriage as holy matrimony, we need to understand that sometimes the right decision is to stay apart. It took this couple 38 years to get a divorce which does not really comment on the state of the judiciary but rather the society we live in. Indian Judiciary cannot be solely driven by the rule of law in family matters especially regarding marriage as people are emotionally driven and we look at marriages from a different lens than the rest of the world. The Judiciary does its best to serve justice to all the parties involved and we know this case took longer than usual but we need to have faith in the law!