Divorce by Church Courts has no legal sanctity: SC

Supreme Court has said that divorce decrees granted by ecclesiastical tribunals, popularly known among Christians as church courts, had no legal sanctity. A bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice DY Chandrachud said any man who remarries after divorce decree granted by church court will be committing an offence.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by Bengaluru-based Catholic advocate Clarence Pais, who has sought legal sanctity for divorce decrees granted by church courts. He had pleaded that marriage and divorce among Catholic Christians were governed by the church and in the absence of its recognition by law, unsuspecting men were facing prosecution for bigamy.