# SC says foreign divorce on irretrievable breakdown invalid in India 2026-11-03T21:36:35+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 6 independent outlets (7 source reports) The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 3 November ruled that a foreign divorce decree granted on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not enforceable in India. A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar refused to quash a bigamy case against a UK-based doctor who remarried after obtaining a divorce from the Cambridge County Court in 2014. The court held that the foreign decree violated Section 13 of the CPC because irretrievable breakdown is not a statutory ground under the Hindu Marriage Act. It rejected the argument that British citizenship or the location of the second marriage outside India shielded the husband from Section 494 IPC. The bench quashed proceedings against the man's parents and second wife, finding no overt act attributable to them. The husband's criminal trial will proceed. ## Indian Opinion Analysis All six sources report the same Supreme Court ruling with near-identical facts, each attributing the bench's reasoning to the judgment text itself rather than adding editorial framing. Deccan Herald quotes the court on delay being a continuing offence, a detail absent from the shorter accounts. Times Now and Rediff lead with the bench's rejection of the forum non conveniens argument. The uniform coverage means the story's legal significance, that foreign decrees on non-recognised grounds cannot defeat Section 494 IPC, stands alone without competing narratives. The case returns to the trial court. ## Coverage Coverage: 5 sources, 5 neutral - courtbook.in (neutral report) Straight report on the ruling with bench quote - deccanherald.com (neutral report) Leads with continuing offence point, neutral throughout - Syndicated copy - timesnownews.com PTI wire copy, no slant, leads with forum non conveniens - telanganatoday.com Brief wire report, neutral, drops parents' quash - rediff.com (neutral report) PTI-based summary, neutral, emphasises sanctity of marriage - livelaw.in (neutral report) Detailed legal reasoning, no slant, cites Section 13 CPC This brief was synthesised by AI from the 5 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Update, 4 November 2026: this story now draws on 6 sources. Last updated 2026-11-03T21:56:40+00:00. Tags: Andhra Pradesh, Cambridge County Court, Prashant Kumar Mishra, Section 494 IPC, Shree Chandrashekhar, Supreme Court of India Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/foreign-divorce-on-irretrievable-breakdown-invalid-in-india-supreme-court/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/foreign-divorce-on-irretrievable-breakdown-invalid-in-india-supreme-court/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/