SC stays HC order on foreign citizens' marital disputes -Governance Now

SC stays HC order on foreign citizens' marital disputes

Delhi HC order saying Indian courts can't entertain cases of marital dispute between foreign citizens stayed by apex court

PTI | April 1, 2010

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a Delhi High Court order which had ruled that Indian courts cannot entertain matrimonial disputes if the couple are foreign citizens.

A bench of Justices Aftab Alam and T S Thakur posted the matter for further hearing to May 7 after Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising and counsel Akshay Bhan, appearing for the divorced wife, argued that the issue has to be examined at length as it involved important questions of Constitutional law.

The apex court had last week in an interim order restrained the Interpol from taking custody of the minor boy from his NRI mother's possession after the Delhi High Court quashed a trial court's decree granting custodial rights to the woman.

The high court had, on the husband's petition, ruled that Indian courts do not have any jurisdiction to deal such matrimonial disputes as the couple and the child were all US citizens. It asked the couple to settle their dispute in the US courts.

The apex court passed the interim order on an SLP filed by Ruchi Majoo, a dentist and an American now domiciled in Delhi.

Ruchi's husband, armed with a US court order, sought the help of the Interpol to take custody of the child and came to India, following which the woman moved the apex court.

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