The Indian Express ·
Divorce without wife’s appearance, Chhattisgarh High Court restores her plea
The high court was hearing the woman’s appeal against a family court’s refusal to condone the delay in her plea seeking to set aside the ex parte divorce decree.
The Chhattisgarh High Court has restored a woman’s right to challenge an ex parte (from one side) divorce decree, ruling that the family court failed to properly serve her before dissolving the marriage in her absence. The ruling noted that the family court did not make sufficient efforts to deliver the notice directly before resorting to newspaper publication and proceeding without her.
Justices Parth Prateem Sahu and Sachin Singh Rajput were hearing the woman’s appeal against a June 23, 2025 order of the family court, which had rejected her application seeking condonation of delay in filing a plea to set aside the ex parte judgment and decree of divorce passed against her on April 25, 2024.
“Any of the parties shall not be made to suffer an order without being an opportunity of hearing,” the high court said on September 11, holding that the family court had hastily passed the ex parte decree without serving the woman and without following the procedure prescribed under the Code of Civil Procedure.