When Borders Collide: Why Your US Divorce Might Not Be Valid In India

Your United States divorce may not count in India. The Supreme Court said so this year.

Consider the case of a couple married in Mumbai in 2005 who later lived in America. In 2008, the wife filed for divorce in Michigan, while the husband filed in a Pune family court a month later. Although the US court granted a divorce and the Bombay High Court initially accepted it, the Supreme Court disagreed in March 2026.

The Court applied two strict tests:

1. The divorce must be granted on a ground that the couple and their governing marriage law allows.
2. The other spouse must have actively and genuinely participated in the proceedings.

Because the US divorce was granted on grounds of irretrievable breakdown which is not a recognized ground under the Hindu Marriage Act, and because the husband had merely filed a paper challenging the US court jurisdiction rather than participating, the Supreme Court refused to accept the foreign divorce and ended the marriage itself.