Indian divorce decree is not ‘foreign’, Bombay HC tells registrar

Panaji: The Bombay high court has directed the civil-cum-sub-registrar, Salcete, to cancel within a week the marriage registration of a couple whose marriage was dissolved by a Bengaluru court in 2022. A 44-year-old from Salcete taluka knocked on the doors of the high court after the civil-cum-sub-registrar, Salcete, refused to cancel his marriage certificate of 2007, stating that the order of the Bengaluru court dissolving their marriage was passed by a court outside the jurisdiction of Goa and hence is a ‘foreign decree’.

The Portuguese Code of Civil Procedure, 1939, mandates that any judgment of a foreign court must be reviewed and confirmed by the high court, the sub-registrar stated.

The division bench of Justices Valmiki Menezes and Amit Jamsandekar quashed the sub-registrar’s requirement and directed the registrar and all sub-registrars Goa not to treat any decree of a civil court established in India as a foreign decree.

The court directed all the registrars not to refuse registration or cancel entry by raising the objection that the decree is required to be reviewed and confirmed by the high court, if the decree is passed by a court in India.

Observing that there are many such applications pending before the registrar in Goa due to objections raised under Articles 1100, 1101 and 1102 of the Portuguese Code of Civil Procedure, 1939, the court directed all such pending applications to be disposed of by the registrar and all sub-registrars within two weeks.

The court stated,”If the decree is passed by any civil court in India, then the provisions of Articles 1100, 1101 and 1102 of the Portuguese Code of Civil Procedure 1939 are not applicable. The decree passed by a civil court established in India is binding on the Registrar, and the Registrar is bound to abide by the same. Therefore, there was no reason for the Registrar not to cancel the entry and the certificate of marriage and make the consequential changes in the register.”