Bombay HC- allows woman to give consent for divorce through skype

Bombay High Court in a recent judgement allowed for a woman living in US who had named her father as her POA holder to give consent via skype and allowed her to make her statements/give consent/recording of the consent terms via skype.

Her petition under 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act was rejected by the family court but the High Court asked the family court to not demand her presence and get her consent via the electronic means available these days.

The High Court even cited several other judgements wherein the consent was obtained via skype namely Mukesh Narayan Shinde v Palak Mukesh Shinde and Navdeep Kaur v Mahinder S Ahluwalia.

Relying on the judgement of Mukesh vs Palak Shinde, the court concluded that:

in the light of advanced technological development, physical presence of the
parties even at the time of allowing the petition by mutual
consent, is not mandatory. The Court has observed in paragraph
6 of the said judgment that the physical presence of both the
parties is generally asked and necessary to verify the authenticity
of the identity of the parties to confirm their consent. However, in
peculiar circumstances, like where one of the parties cannot
remain present due to certain practical difficulties i.e. job, leave,
visa etc. Due to globalization and since noticeable educated young
persons are crossing the borders of India and it is not possible to
remain present. This Court had observed that there is no illegality
to solve such difficulty by adopting novel and available ways by
use of advanced technology of communication and new scientific
method. In the peculiar circumstances of the case, the Court had
directed online counselling to be done with the help of webcam
and online consent through the webcam and laptop/computer.

Click here to view judgement