The Bombay high court on Wednesday turned down a divorce appeal filed by a woman a year after the initial decree, ruling that the petition was no longer relevant since her former spouse had remarried after the required 30-day appeal period had passed.
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A bench of justices Sandipkumar C More and Vaishali Patil-Jadhav passed the order on a petition filed by a 27-year-old woman from Jalgaon district to request that a delay of 382 days in filing the appeal against the court order on their divorce be condoned.
The man, however, contended that the decree attained finality since he remarried on May 21, 2025.
The high court accepted the argument advanced on behalf of the man, citing Section 15 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, which allows a spouse to remarry if no appeal is filed within the prescribed 30-day period.
“The right to appeal, though substantive, is subject to the limitation prescribed by law,” the bench said, adding that a legal bar arises after the decree of divorce attains finality on expiry of the limitation period and therefore rejected the woman’s plea for condonation of the delay.
In the present case, the court said the decree for divorce was issued on April 24, 2024 and the husband remarried on May 21, 2025.
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“Therefore, the second marriage is valid and lawful,” the court said. “Even assuming that the delay could be condoned, the substantive relief of appeal cannot be granted due to the legal bar created by the respondent husband’s valid second marriage.”
The bench, however, clarified that the dismissal of the appeal would not preclude the woman from seeking permanent alimony through an independent proceeding.
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According to her petition, the now-divorced couple married in May 2018 and began living separately after differences arose between them. In March 2022, her 31-year-old husband filed a petition for divorce on the grounds of desertion.
The wife appeared in the divorce proceedings, contested the husband’s petition and even filed a written statement. But at some point, she abandoned the proceedings. On April 24, 2024, the family court allowed the husband’s petition and dissolved the marriage by issuing a decree of divorce.
In her plea, the woman said she learnt about the decree only in July 2025 when her husband informed a magistrate’s court where a case under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (DV) Act, 2005, was pending.
She thereafter filed an appeal seeking condonation of the delay beyond the stipulated 30-day limitation.
