A Zoroastrian couple who solemnised their marriage twice was granted a second divorce by the Bombay High Court on Friday.
The Parsi couple tied the knot in September 2004 and had registered their marriage under provisions of the Special Marriages Act, 1954. After being insisted by their kins to solemnize their marriage following Zoroastrian customs, the couple got their marriage registered a second time on December 21, 2004, this time under the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936.
After a few years of marriage, the couple developed conflicts, leading them to consider a separation. The duo began living separately in March 2018.
Although family members made several attempts to reconcile the two, the estranged couple filed a joint plea in the Thane family court to annull their marriage registered under the Special Marriages Act, 1954.
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The family court accepted the plea on January 6, 2022, thus dissolving their marriage.
The duo then filed for a second divorce in the Bombay HC to get the marriage registered under the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936, annulled.
A single-judge bench of justice Girish Kulkarni on Friday observed the plea and the duo’s decision to file a second divorce. Because of a clause in section 42 of the 1954 Act, the couple’s first divorce had no effect on their second marriage registered under the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936.
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According to section 52(2) of the 1936 Act, any Parsi individual who is not legally divorced, or a marriage that is not dissolved by a court, remains bound under the provisions of the Act.
“It is for this reason the plaintiffs have appropriately filed the present proceedings despite a pre-existing nullity of their marriage,” said the court.
The High Court added that there are no provisions in the two acts that can dissolve a marriage registered by the same couple under both the enactments.
