Matrimonial disputes are toughest to deal with: SC

A bench of justices D K Jain and H L Dattu asked the couple to give their union another chance despite having bitterness between them while expressing concern over why dispute arises in marriages which are said to be "made in heaven".

"Marriages are made in heaven, or so it is said. But we are more often than not made to wonder what happens to them by the time they descend to earth. Though there is a legal machinery in place to deal with such cases, these are perhaps the toughest for the courts to deal with. Such is the case presently before us," the court said.

"Though there is bitterness amongst the parties and they have not even lived as husband and wife for the past about 11 years, we hope that they will give this union another chance, if not for themselves, for the future of their daughter," the court further said.

The apex court passed the order on a petition filed by a man seeking divorce from his wife who had initially consented for the separation but later on backed out.

The husband Hitesh Bhatnagar, who has been living separately from his wife for the last 11 years, pleaded before the bench that his wife had initially consented for separation so he should be granted divorce on the basis of mutual consent.

His wife, Deepa Bhatnagar, however opposed the divorce plea and pleaded that she wanted the marriage to continue especially in order to secure the future of their minor daughter.

She also stated she never wanted the marriage to be dissolved and she is willing to live with her husband putting away all the bitterness that has existed between the parties.
The Court after hearing both sides asked them to give their marriage another chance in the interest of their daughter.

"In light of these facts and circumstances, it would be travesty of justice to dissolve this marriage as having broken down," the court said.

"What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined for life – to strengthen each other in all labour, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent, unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting," the court said while quoting George Eliot.

In this case, the couple got married in 1994 and was blessed are blessed with a daughter a year thereafter.

After living four years together, the couple started living separately due to differences in their temperaments. They filed petition for divorce in 2001 for dissolution of the marriage by grant of a decree of divorce by mutual consent.

Soon after the wife withdrew her consent due to whih divorce was not granted.