Hindu Marriage Act Applies only if domiciled in India

The supreme court of India has ruled that Hindu Marriage Act applies to Hindu couples residing in other countries or holding citizenship of other countries only if there is proof of domicile in India.

India Today reports

An SC bench said the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 can have extra-territorial operation on non-Indian Hindu couples or on couples residing in other countries only if they are domiciled in India. 

The judgment assumes relevance for Hindu couples of Indian origin as it removes confusion created by conflicting opinions by different high courts in the country. The law is often invoked by women who settle abroad after marriage but come back to India after estrangement and take to legal recourse. 

The SC said it did not agree with judgments by the Calcutta, Rajasthan and Kerala HCs holding that the Hindu Marriage Act applied to all Hindu couples around the world, irrespective of the fact that they were domiciled in India or not. 

Since the HCs took religion to be the nexus, they found domicile irrelevant for the purposes of the application of the Act. The place which a person intends to make his permanent or indefinite residence is domicile. 

The HC judgments were cited before the SC while it was considering the maintainability of a petition filed under the Act by a woman in Mumbai. The woman had become a Swedish citizen after her marriage in India. The SC, while dealing with her case, said extra- territorial operation of the Act without any nexus would make the provision invalid.