Supreme Court denies foreign divorce shield against Indian bigamy proceedings

In N. Sridhar Reddy v. State of Andhra Pradesh, the Supreme Court declined to stop bigamy proceedings against a husband who relied on a United Kingdom divorce decree. The judgment was delivered on 3 November 2026 and received fresh morning coverage on 12 November 2026. Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar examined whether the foreign decree satisfied the conditions for recognition under Indian law.

The husband had unsuccessfully sought divorce in India before obtaining a foreign decree based on irretrievable breakdown of marriage. His first wife had contested the foreign court's jurisdiction. The Court found that the decree did not meet Section 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, read with the applicable matrimonial law. It rejected the argument that later British citizenship and a second marriage abroad removed the legal consequences of the subsisting Indian marriage. The husband therefore remained subject to proceedings. The Court separately quashed proceedings against his parents and second wife. The decision addressed whether prosecution should continue; it did not pronounce the husband guilty after trial.

Facts to remember

• Judgment date: 3 November 2026; citation: 2026 INSC 1191.
• Bench: Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar.
• Recognition provision: Section 13, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
• The challenged prosecution invoked Section 494 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860; proceedings survived against the husband.

Background

Section 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure sets exceptions to the conclusiveness of foreign judgments. Recognition of a matrimonial decree also requires attention to the law governing the marriage and the foreign court's jurisdiction. Merely obtaining a decree abroad does not resolve those separate legal questions.

Why it matters for exams

For Judiciary, APO, AIBE and UGC-NET Law, revise foreign judgments and matrimonial jurisdiction, and distinguish refusal to quash a prosecution from a finding of criminal guilt.