If you and your spouse have been separated for ten years and are wondering whether you can approach the Supreme Court directly to obtain a divorce decree, understanding the genuine and quite limited circumstances in which this is actually possible is important, since this is not an ordinary or routinely available pathway for most litigants.

The fundamental and general principle is that divorce proceedings in India must ordinarily be initiated before the Family Court having proper jurisdiction, whether pursuing mutual consent under Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, or a contested proceeding under Section 13(1), and the Supreme Court does not function as a court of first instance for divorce petitions in the ordinary course, meaning you cannot simply file a fresh divorce petition directly before the Supreme Court as your starting point.

However, it is genuinely important to understand a specific and extraordinary exception: the Supreme Court possesses unique constitutional powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India, which allows the Court to pass any order necessary for doing "complete justice" in any cause or matter genuinely pending before it, and the Supreme Court has, in a number of specific and exceptional cases, exercised this power to directly grant a divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage, a ground not otherwise formally recognised under the ordinary statutory framework applicable to Family Courts.

Given your ten years of separation specifically, this extended period is genuinely and directly relevant to this specific exceptional remedy, since the Supreme Court, in exercising this Article 142 power, has consistently emphasised that it will only do so where the marriage has genuinely and completely broken down beyond any realistic possibility of reconciliation, and a prolonged separation of this magnitude, ten years, is precisely the kind of factual circumstance the Court has historically considered strongly supportive of this specific conclusion.

It is genuinely important to understand, however, that this remedy is not something you can simply and directly petition the Supreme Court for as an entirely standalone, fresh application, since the Supreme Court's Article 142 jurisdiction is specifically exercised in relation to a matter genuinely pending before it, meaning the practical pathway to accessing this remedy typically involves your case reaching the Supreme Court through the ordinary appellate process, such as through a Special Leave Petition under Article 136 challenging a lower court's decision, or, in certain instances, through a transfer petition if one spouse has sought to have matrimonial proceedings transferred to a different jurisdiction, at which point the Supreme Court, having the matter properly before it, can then exercise its Article 142 power to grant the divorce directly.

If your specific situation involves ongoing litigation, whether a pending appeal from a Family Court or High Court decision, or a transfer petition currently before the Supreme Court, your advocate can specifically request the Court to consider exercising its Article 142 powers given your extended ten-year separation and the genuine, demonstrated breakdown of your marriage, presenting this history and the absence of any realistic prospect of reconciliation as the basis for this specific relief.

If you do not currently have any matter genuinely pending before the Supreme Court, it is worth understanding that you cannot simply file a fresh, standalone petition directly with the Supreme Court seeking this specific relief in the ordinary course, meaning your more realistic and practical path would be to pursue your divorce through the ordinary Family Court process, whether mutual consent if your spouse now agrees given this extended separation, or a contested proceeding on an appropriate ground such as desertion, given the specific elements this ground requires, as discussed extensively in relation to establishing desertion.

If your spouse is now willing to agree to end the marriage given this extended separation, pursuing mutual consent divorce under Section 13B before the Family Court represents a considerably more direct, accessible, and efficient path than attempting to access the Supreme Court's exceptional Article 142 jurisdiction, which remains reserved for genuinely exceptional cases and is not a routinely available alternative to the ordinary Family Court process.

Given how genuinely limited and exceptional this specific Supreme Court remedy actually is, it is essential to consult an experienced family law advocate to properly understand the realistic and appropriate pathway for your specific circumstances. You can reach out via Aapka Legal Advice for guidance on understanding whether pursuing the ordinary Family Court process, or, in appropriate circumstances, seeking Supreme Court intervention through proper appellate channels, represents the correct path given your ten years of separation.

You can review Top Divorce Lawyers in India | Aapka Legal Advice for relevant experience handling long-separation matrimonial matters.

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If formal legal representation is required, engaging an experienced advocate will ensure you pursue the genuinely correct and most efficient path given your specific circumstances.

In summary, a divorce decree generally cannot be sought directly from the Supreme Court as a standalone, fresh petition, even after ten years of separation, since the Supreme Court's exceptional power under Article 142 of the Constitution to grant divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown is specifically exercised only in relation to matters already properly pending before it through the ordinary appellate process, meaning the realistic and appropriate path for most couples in your situation remains pursuing divorce through the ordinary Family Court process, whether mutual consent or contested proceedings.