India’s Off And On Relationship With Prenuptial Agreements: Judicial Interpretation Of Prenuptial Agreements Across Different Communities
- IJLLR Journal
- Jul 4
- 1 min read
Dhwani Sharma, Gujarat National Law University
ABSTRACT
The idea of marriage is very different in India across religions. This is because the idea of marriage as a social institution is always evolving. For centuries all over the world marriage has been about social standing and customs rather than love or free will. This idea of marriage has changed in our contemporary society. We have seen this change reflected in our laws but it is still impossible to ignore that our laws are heavily influenced by religious texts and customs in India. One such topic in which that remains a gray area in law are prenuptial agreements. While they have been adopted by numerous countries across the world, India presents a challenge due to its wide diversity of religions, customs and practices. It is up to the Courts in India whether or not to enforce these pre-nuptial agreements. Historically Courts have refused to accept these agreements due to it being against ‘public policy’, especially when it comes to Hindu Marriages which are seen as ‘sacred’. Courts have been more accepting of pre-nuptial agreements with respect to other religious communities based on their religious texts and customs. However, we are currently witnessing a change in how these agreementsareenforced by the Courts due to the change in public opinion and what constitutes as ‘public policy’. This paper looks into how the Courts have interpreted and enforced prenuptial agreements across different religious communities and the evolving idea of “public policy” as it relates to pre-nuptial agreements.
