A writ petition filed by a woman before the Supreme Court seeking to halt divorce proceedings initiated in Rhode Island, US, has reignited a longstanding question in cross-border marriages: when a marriage is solemnised under Indian Christian law, can an Indian court prevent a spouse from pursuing divorce abroad?
In her petition, the woman described the foreign proceedings as “a grave issue of transnational matrimonial abuse, forum shopping, coercive foreign divorce proceedings and violation of the fundamental rights of an Indian woman.”
The marriage was solemnised under Indian Christian rites and later registered in Tamil Nadu under the Tamil Nadu Registration of Marriages Act, 2009. The petitioner claims she remains domiciled in India and that the marriage is governed by the Indian Divorce Act, 1869.
According to the plea, the husband initiated the divorce in October 2025 “without the petitioner’s consent and submission to its jurisdiction.” The proceedings are described as “ex facie without jurisdiction, oppressive and constitutionally impermissible” and allegedly being used as “an instrument of extortion, coercion and economic abuse.”
“The cause of action is continuous and subsisting in India,” the petition states, adding that she is “remediless before foreign courts, which lack jurisdiction under Indian law.”
