New Delhi: The Supreme Court will likely pronounce on May 1 its verdict on broad parameters for exercising its vast powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to dissolve mar-riages between consenting couples without referring them to family courts. A five-judge constitution bench of Justices SK Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, A S Oka, Vikram Nath and J K Maheshwari had reserved its judgement on September 29, 2022. While reserving its or-der, the court had said social changes take a “lit-tle time” and sometimes it is easier to bring a law but difficult to persuade society to change with it.
The apex court had acknowledged the large role a family plays in marriages in India. Article 142 of the Constitution deals with enforcement of decrees and orders of the apex court to do “complete justice” in any matter pending before it. The apex court is also considering whether its sweeping powers under Article 142 are inhibited in any manner in a scenario where a marriage has irretrievably broken down in the opinion of the court but one of the par-ties is resisting divorce.
Two questions, including whether the exercise of such jurisdiction by the SC under Article 142 should not be made at all or whether such exercise should be left to be deter-mined in the facts of every case, were earlier referred to the constitution bench. One of the questions, which has been referred to it is what could be the broad parameters for the exercise of powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to dis-solve a marriage between consenting parties without referring the parties to the family