A foreign court does not have the jurisdiction to decide matrimonial matters of a couple who have Indian domicile and are governed under the Hindu Marriage Act even if the parties were at the time residing in a foreign nation, the Bombay High Court has observed.
A Division Bench of Justices A.S. Oka and Anuja Prabhudessai last week quashed and set aside a Dubai court’s order allowing a divorce petition filed by an Indian man residing there.
Maintenance claim
The High Court was hearing an appeal filed by the man’s wife challenging an order passed by a family court here that dismissed her plea seeking maintenance for herself and her two children. The family court, while dismissing her plea, observed that the Dubai court had already adjudicated the matter. However, the High Court, after perusing the case, opined that both are Indian citizens and there was no material to endorse the husband’s claim that they have domiciles in Dubai.
“Under the circumstances, we are unable to hold that the Dubai court was a court of competent jurisdiction to decide the matrimonial dispute between the petitioner [wife] and the respondent [husband],” Justices Oka and Prabhudessai ruled.
The HC noted that the parties in the present case are Indian nationals, are Hindus by birth, were married as per Hindu Vedic Rights and were governed in the matter of marriage and divorce by the provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act 1955.
“There can be no dispute that the court in Dubai would have no jurisdiction to entertain the petition in accordance with the provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act,” the HC noted.
The Bench restored the petition filed by the wife before the family court.
The HC directed both parties to appear before the family court on September 18.
