Whether Divorce can be granted due to broken of marriage or due to ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’ ?

In K. Srinivas Rao Vs. D.A. Deepa (2013) 5 Supreme Court Cases 226, it is held that whether the marriage is beyond repair on the ground of bitterness created by the acts of the husband or the wife or both, the courts have always taken irretrievable breakdown of the marriage as a very weighty circumstance amongst others necessitating severance of marital tie. A marriage, which is dead for all purposes cannot be revived by the court’s verdict if the parties are not willing. This is because the marriage involves human sentiments and emotions and if they have dried up, there is hardly any chance of their springing back to life on account of artificial reunion created by the court’s decree.

In Darshan Gupta Vs. Radhika Gupta, (2013) 9 Supreme Court Cases 1, the Apex Court has opined that the Apex Court in some cases had dissolved the marriage on the ground of ‘irretrievable breakdown’ but in those cases, the legal position was not taken into consideration and hence, they are not precedents. It is also mentioned in para-’52’ of this judgement that the decree of divorce on the ground of ‘irretrievable breakdown’ of marriage could not be granted for the simple reason that the breakdown was from the side of the husband only. The Apex Court found that where the wife was intensely concerned with her future relationship with her husband and her greatest desire was to rejoin her husband and to live in a normal matrimonial life, in that case the Court cannot proceed to grant decree of divorce.