Dear all,
I am posting this query on behalf of a friend. He and his wife(?) belong to the Patel community in Gujarat.
He got married in early 2010. SInce he was studying/working in UK, he stayed with his wife for 10 days and then left for UK with the understanding that once her documents are processed, she shall join him in UK. She stayed with his parents for 8 months during which her passport, PAN card, visa etc were processed and then she left for UK. Within 3 months, she came back to India under the pretext of further education and with the understanding that she shall stay with her in laws and pursue further study and rejoin him on completion. However, as soon as she landed back in India (in Jan 2011), she went to her parental home without even meeting her in laws and her parents actually abused and threatened my friend's parents to not even try to contact her.
Following this episode, a lot of efforts were made by my friend's side for reconciliation and to try to find reason for such behaviour. However, apart from threats and legal notices, there was nothing else forthcoming. Ultimately after 2 further years, the girl's side said that they wanted to marry their daughter elsewhere and if the groom gives them money and gold, they shall cooperate for mutual consent divorce in court.
My friend came to India and both parties made an agreement on 20/- stamp paper for divorce and then filed for mutual consent divorce in family court. However the court rejected the petition on ground of jurisdiction. The girl and her family are aware of this. Since my friend is overseas, the decree of divorce was important and even in the agreement it was agreed upon that both sides shall cooperate to obtain decree from court. After rejection on ground of jurisdiction, my friend wanted to file at the other courts where the family court redirected, however the girl and her family cut off all contact and haven't responded in any manner. They absolutely refused to cooperate in any way and even did not return the extorted money and gold that they had taken as part of agreement of cooperating for divorce in court of law.
It's 5 years now since the petition was rejected and they never cooperated for divorce. My friend discovered few months back that she had remarried within 5 months of filing of MCD and its rejection and was now pregnant with new husband's child. They had even registered the marriage on basis of notarized agreement of divorce. He also discovered that the new husband was her college mate before marriage and she was in relationship with him and it was to marry him that she dumped my friend. He has now filed a case with police regarding bigamy, adultery, threats of killing, cheating and breach of trust. But the police are not pursuing the case and not even registering an FIR. They have just accepted application. The application was submitted in June 2018. The police went to the girl's new marital home and found her pregnant and even obtained copies of new marriage registration, marriage invitation cards, photos but are not giving the same to the boy, nor giving police report and even in response of RTI have refused to share any documents obtained or police report.
My questions are:
1. Whether the divorce can be considered legally valid?
2. Whether legally the girl has committed bigamy since she knew she did not have a decree (still does not have decree), yet wilfully she entered another marriage.
3. Whether there is a way of making the police register an FIR?
4. Whether adultery is now no more a crime since the Supreme court has advised decriminilazation of adultery?
With warm regards,
