Supreme Court lays down when an Indian court may restrain a spouse from litigating a divorce abroad

Deciding an appeal arising from a matrimonial dispute in which a husband had obtained an anti-suit injunction from an Indian trial court restraining his wife from pursuing divorce and maintenance proceedings she had filed before a UK Family Court, the Supreme Court restated the principles that govern when an Indian court may grant such relief. Citing Modi Entertainment Network v. W.S.G. Cricket Pte. Ltd., the Court reiterated that an anti-suit injunction may issue only against a party amenable to the Indian court's personal jurisdiction, where refusing it would defeat the ends of justice, and with due regard to comity of courts; courts must apply the doctrine of forum non conveniens to assess whether the foreign proceedings are oppressive, vexatious, or being pursued in a plainly inconvenient forum.

Such injunctions, the Court held, must be granted sparingly and not as a matter of routine, since they inevitably touch the sovereign jurisdiction of a foreign court. On the facts, the husband's argument that any UK divorce decree granted on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage, not a recognised ground under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, would be unenforceable in India under Section 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, was held premature, since the UK proceedings were still pending and no decree had been passed. The Supreme Court accordingly upheld the High Court's order vacating the anti-suit injunction and dismissed the husband's appeal.