Special Marriage -- Doctrine of Frustration -- Supervening Events Rendering Marital Obligations Impossible May Justify Dissolution Under Doctrine Analogous to Frustration
The doctrine of frustration, rooted in Section 56 of the Indian Contract Act, may be invoked by Constitutional Courts in matrimonial jurisprudence where supervening circumstances render performance of essential marital obligations — cohabitation, fidelity, exclusivity, and consortium — irreversibly impossible. This is distinct from irretrievable breakdown, which arises from incompatibility or separation; frustration arises where the very legal and moral foundation of marriage stands destroyed. Marriages under the Special Marriage Act, being civil and contractual in character, permit limited doctrinal borrowing from contract law where justice so demands. Constitutional Courts are empowered to adopt purposive interpretation to dissolve such marriages rather than perpetuate legal fictions.
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