Recent SC Judgement on Christian Marriage and Divorce

The church weddings are considered to be civil marriages because church is a registrar of marriage. The church sends a copy of the register to government every few months. At the same time, Churches allow divorce also. However, there has been a misconception regarding divorce granted by Church, that once that is granted, the marriage is over. The grant of divorce by church does not end the marriage. Divorce in India comes under the Indian Divorce Act 1869 which specifically mentions that only court can grant divorce to Christian couple.

This particular provision was challenged in court by a 80 year old petition who urged the court that it should equate the Christian personal law with Muslim Personal Law and tribal personal laws and should hold the divorce granted by church valid.  However, in recent judgement, supreme court has refused to accept this plea and upheld the 1869 Act that divorce needs to be granted by court to be legally valid.

How Christian community sees this?

The Christian community has generally welcomed the verdict. This is because it once again removes the misconception and makes it clear that it is court to decide on divorce matter; and Church annulment alone does not permit remarriage. If a person remarriages without seeking divorce from court, it would amount to bigamy.  Thus, SC order grants supremacy to parliamentary laws over personal laws of religious groups. It can be held that divorce decrees of religious institutions can’t override law enacted by the state.


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