Bombay HC: an international divorce claim founders on whether a wedding blessing counted as marriage under Parsi law

The Bombay High Court dismissed a wife's suit for divorce and Rs. 5 crore in alimony against her husband, holding that Indian courts had no jurisdiction because the couple's marriage was never solemnised in India under the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936. The couple, both Zoroastrians, had married civilly in Perth, Australia in 2010 and were later divorced there, with custody and assets already settled. The wife argued that a ceremony held in Mumbai around the same time was in fact the couple's real religious wedding, which would let her sue under the Indian Act; the husband said it was merely a blessing and reception, not a solemnisation.

Under the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act's unusual procedure, this disputed question of fact was referred to a panel of Parsi delegates, lay community members who act as a jury on such questions, and they unanimously found that no marriage ceremony had taken place in India. Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan held that, on the delegates' finding, the suit could not proceed for want of territorial jurisdiction, and rejected the plaint. The ruling leaves the wife's substantial alimony claim without an Indian forum to be heard in.