COVID-19 pandemic led to increase in divorce cases, observes Madras High Court

The COVID-19 pandemic had not only forced lockdown across the globe and claimed thousands of lives but also damaged the institution of marriage during the period between 2020 and 2022. This is what the Madras High Court observed while taking note of a large number of matrimonial disputes involving parties who got married during the Covid-19 period. The court also called for a statewide data in an attempt to resolve the disputes amicably.

During the hearing of a civil revision petition on Friday (Oct 16), Justice N Anand Venkatesh noted that more than 95% of the matrimonial disputes before the court involved couples who married during the pandemic. It also came to the fore that most of the marriages lasted for only six to nine months.

The court noted that over 95% of the matrimonial disputes that came before it in the last three months involved couples who were married between 2020 and 2022., a period when COVID hit the globe, with the first and second waves forcing the country into an unprecedented lockdown.

The court while hearing the civil revision petition said that living together in the same house exposed the best and worst aspects of couples’ characters, while concerns about the future and the circumstances (COVID pandemic) directly affected their marital relationship.

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Further, the court said that these disputes should be treated as a separate category and require out-of-the-box thinking for resolution.

The court also directed all principal district judges across Tamil Nadu to collect data from Family Courts and other courts dealing with matrimonial disputes involving marriages that took place between 2020 and 2022 and submit it before the next hearing on November 27.

Assistance of family court lawyers to explore the alternatives to amicably resolve these cases will be sought, said the court further.