India: Supreme Court Reaffirms Church Court Marriage Annulments ‘Not Legal’
By UCA News
Rulings pertaining to the annulment of marriages in India that are decided by ecclesiastical tribunals, commonly known among Christians as church courts, have no legal sanctity reaffirmed the country’s Supreme Court on July 4, reported The Times of India.
The court also ruled that anyone who remarried after being given such a divorce decree would be committing an offence, the report said.
The ruling comes after a Catholic lawyer Clarence Pais sought legal sanctity for divorce decrees granted by ecclesiastical tribunals.
The Supreme Court said a 1996 ruling had already settled the issue of how much authority ecclesiastical tribunals have in matters relating to divorce.
