Don’t Force Couples to Stay in ‘Dead Marriages’: Supreme Court

July 17, 2025 – The Supreme Court has granted divorce to a couple who had been in, what the Court described as, “a dead marriage” for 16 years. Invoking Article 142, the Court directed that when a marriage is irretrievably broken, Courts should grant divorce when a couple cannot live under one roof anymore.

This ruling was given by a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, allowing the plea of the husband for divorce while his wife was opposed to it. The couple had been living separately just after a year of their marriage in 2008. The husband had filed for a divorce at that time but it was not granted by a family court and later, the Delhi High Court.

Making an observation that the husband and wife were living apart from more than 16 years, the Supreme Court described the marriage as defunct for all practical and legal purposes.

“In the present case, it is apparent that due to complete detachment and the prolonged estrangement, there has been an irretrievable breakdown of the marital bond, which cannot be mended by any means. Moreover, both the parties have spent the prime years of their youth  entangled in this marital discord, which has persisted for more than the last 15 years,” it said.

"It is as clear as a day in the case at hand, the continuance of marriage shall only fuel animosity and litigation between and litigation between the parties, which runs contrary to to the ethos of matrimonial harmony envisioned by the law," the Court added while granting divorce.

Source: Media Reports