Can’t dissolve Hindu marriage by signing deed among elders: Delhi HC

The man was dismissed from service in February 2019, pursuant to being subjected to disciplinary proceedings for violating Rule 18 of the CISF Rules, 2001.

The Delhi High Court has ruled that a Hindu marriage cannot be legally dissolved merely by signing a marriage dissolution deed among village elders or other community members.

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A bench of justices C Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla delivered the ruling on August 20, while dealing with a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) constable’s petition challenging his dismissal from service for contracting a second marriage, during the subsistence of his first marriage.

The man was dismissed from service in February 2019, pursuant to being subjected to disciplinary proceedings for violating Rule 18 of the CISF Rules, 2001. The mentioned law bars a person from serving in the force if they enter into a second marriage while the first is still legally subsisting, after joining service.

In his petition before the high court, the man had asserted that he was wrongly dismissed from service, since he had dissolved his first marriage by signing a marriage dissolution deed in October 2017 before persons of the village and had contracted the second marriage thereafter.

Dismissing his petition, the bench, in its four-page verdict released on August 26, said, “The only contention advanced is that the first marriage had been dissolved by signing of a marriage dissolution deed before the persons of the village. We are unaware of any law or principle by which a duly solemnised Hindu marriage can be dissolved by signing a marriage dissolution deed in front of village persons.”