Prakashchandra Joshi v. Kuntal Prakashchandra Joshi @ Kuntal Visanji Shah
Case at a glance
Outcome
Allowed
For the foregoing reasons, the appeal is allowed and we dissolve the
Provisions considered
- Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 s. 9
- Constitution of India art. 142(1)
Judgment
Held: The appellant lost his job in Canada and the family came back to India in January, 2011 – The couple last resided together in appellant’s mother’s house till 19.02.2011 – After this date, they lost contact with each other, and the respondent refused to return to the matrimonial home – On being contacted, the respondent refused to resume matrimonial life unless the appellant separates from his family and resides in a separate household – On account of appellant’s inability to accede to this demand of the respondent, she never returned to resume the matrimonial life – The respondent did not appear in the proceedings u/s. 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, despite receiving summons – Similarly, in the present divorce proceedings also the respondent failed to enter appearance despite service of notice in the Trial Court, High Court and Supreme Court as well – Thus, it is apparent that the respondent does not wish to continue the marital chord and is not responding to court summons – There is no hesitation in holding that the present is a case of irretrievable breakdown of marriage as there is no possibility of the couple staying together – For the foregoing reasons, the marriage between the parties is dissolved in exercise of powers u/Art. 142(1) of the Constitution. [Paras 11, 12, 15, 16] * Author 698 [2024] 1 S.C.R. Case Law Cited Shilpa Sailesh vs. Varubn Sreenivasan, [2023] 5 SCR 165 : (2023) SCC online SC 544 – relied on.
Questions this judgment answers
What did the Court decide in this case?
The Court recorded the following disposition: For the foregoing reasons, the appeal is allowed and we dissolve the
Which statutory provisions did this judgment involve?
Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 — s. 9; Constitution of India — art. 142(1).
Which court decided this case, and when?
Supreme Court of India, on 24 Jan 2024. The bench was B R GAVAI, PRASHANT KUMAR MISHRA.
Precedent status how later indexed judgments have treated this case
No known negative treatment found in the Courts & Cases corpus.
This is a result about the indexed corpus, not a finding that the judgment remains good law. Coverage may be incomplete.