Jurisdiction and Choice of Law Issues in Family Matters

A couple marry in Mumbai, move to Houston, and the husband files for divorce in a Texas court while his wife is still in Navi Mumbai and never appears. Years later he produces the decree and says he is free to remarry in India. Can an Indian court treat that decree as valid? Two separate questions hide inside this story: did the Texas court have the right to hear the case, and which law did it apply? Family law keeps those two questions apart, and this topic shows how.

In two minutes

In family matters there are three separate questions: which court has jurisdiction, which country's law that court applies (choice of law), and whether a foreign decree will be recognised in India; Indian law answers them through the venue sections of the Hindu Marriage Act and Special Marriage Act and sections 13, 14 and 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure.

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