Legal Question in Family Law in India

Is it mandatory to validate/execute foreign divorce decree in India. My husband got ex-parte divorce from US which I was not able to contest as I was tricked into returning to India. After waiting for an year for him or his family to accept me I had to file divorce in 2013 which is pending. I was never served any summons and neither did I get any certificate of foreign Divorce.I have been running around from last three years trying to get summons served on my husband and only succeeded twice and the court says I still need to send summon. My questions are:

a.Is it not mandatory to validate or execute foreign divorce decree in India.

b. Do i need to first set aside foreign divorce even though , from what I have been told, it stands null n void and then proceed with my divorce case. what If I chose to not do it.

c. In case the answer to the first is yes what action can I take against my husband for not providing any information about divorce.

I request experts to please help me as nobody in U.P knows much about foreign laws and already much time and money has been wasted .Everybody is trying to make money by misleading me into filling number of cases which I cannot as I am not financially strong.


Asked on 8/13/16, 12:44 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Vivek Mapara Vivek N. Mapara

Ms.

Divorce Decree granted by US Court is not automatically executable or considered valid in Indian Court, unless it is ratified by the Indian Courts. So when the US Court decree is pressed in to Service by your Husband, at that time you can challenge such US Court Decree on multiple grounds under the Law. So, as of now, you do not need to challenge the US Court Decree in Indian. Just consider, as if no such Decree is passed by the US Courts.

You can right now proceed with your Suit filed in U.P. Once the Summons is served upon the Defendant, then there is no need to serve the summons another time. The procedure adopted by teh Court is wrong. However, perhaps, the Judge is not sure, if the summons is actually served or not, since the acknowledgment might be missing. If still there is any problem, hten you can take permission from the Court, to serve the summons by way of Courier through DHL, or you can also take permission for Direct Service in US. Direct service of Summons on US is permitted.

However, please note, India and US both are signatory to Hague Convention on Service of Judicial / Extra-Judicial Documents. Hence, normally such service of summons has to be effected through Hague Convention, however, with the permission of the COurt, such procedure can be bypassed and you can have service of summons by alternative modes.

Feel free to ask should you have any questions

VIvek N Mapara

www.vnmlaws.com

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Answered on 8/19/16, 12:04 pm


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