Shilpa Sailesh vs Varun Sreenivasan
A Constitution Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul,Justice Sanjiv Khanna,Justice Abhay S Oka, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice JK Maheshwari of Supreme Court held that under Article 142 of the Constitution, they can exercise its plenary powers to grant a divorce in cases of irretrievable breakdown of marriage between the contesting parties.
“Article 142 must be considered in light of the fundamental rights. It should contravene a non-derogable function of the Constitution. Court under the power is empowered to complete justice”.
The issues arise question that whether the Supreme Court could exercise its plenary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to grant a divorce.
The number of petitions were filed concerning the supreme court to use its plenary powers to dissolve a marriage between the parties without the reference of the family court to wait for the mandatory period to dissolving a marriage, which is prescribed under section 13-B of the HMA Act (Hindu Marriage Act).
Senior Advocates Indira Jaising, Kapil Sibal, V Giri, Meenakshi Arora, Dushyant Dave, Jay Savla and V Mohana had been appointed to assist the bench in the matter.
