INTRODUCTION:
Marriage is a voluntary union for life of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others, entered into in accordance with the law Hyde v Hyde and Woodmansee (1866) LR 1 P & D 130. The primary purpose of this union is often times bourne out of the desire for companionship but where the union is no longer tenable or simply put; where the marriage is no longer harmonious, the law creates a window for parties to go their separate ways.
MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDINGS:
Matrimonial Proceedings is primarily governed by the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1970 and the Matrimonial Causes Rules, 1983. By Sec. 114(1) of MCA a matrimonial proceeding is instituted by a petition. This petition is filed at the High Court of the State as Sec. 2(1) of the Act confers jurisdiction on the High Court of any State of the Federation to hear and determine matrimonial causes. Sec. 15 (1) provides the grounds upon which an action for dissolution of marriage can be brought and a party seeking the relief of the Court for dissolution of marriage must provide facts to prove that at least one of these grounds set out in Sec. 15 (2) exists in the marriage. Where these grounds are established, the Court grants the reliefs sought and where same cannot be proved, the action fails in its entirety.
ABRIDGEMENT OF TIME:
Matrimonial Causes Rules, 1983, generally empowers the court to extend or abridge time for doing any act required by the Rules.
The Rules mirror the discretionary power found in civil procedure but stress the need for speedy resolution in matrimonial matters Order XII Rule 3 of the Matrimonial Causes Rules 1983. This power is however discretionary and must be exercised judicially and judiciously so as not infringe on any parties right to fair hearing.
The demeanor of the Court in most circumstance is that where the parties are ad idem to the fact that the marriage has broken down by the facts set out in their pleadings, the Court needs not expend Judicial time and energy determining the case by way of the traditional hearing; the parties simply streamline the issues such as custody and access to children, maintenance of spouse and children, property settlement and distribution, visitation schedules, payment of school fees, medical care, etc and file their terms of settlement based on their agreement on these issues. Parties negotiate these issues and prepare terms of settlement, both parties sign, the document is filed in court, the court invites the parties to confirm consent, the court adopts. This is usually the case where the petition is not contentious.
Marriage is a voluntary union and once it is evident from the facts before the court that the marriage has broken down, the court is duty bound to dissolve the marriage and not try to patch it up by force. The idea behind this kind of proceeding is to make the entire process seemless and less traumatic for the parties.
COMMENTS/CONCLUSION:
A court cannot force unwilling parties to remain married. Its duty is to determine whether the legal ground for dissolution has been proved and if so, to grant the divorce as quickly as possible.
The Judicial dockets are swamped with cases from the public and this modern approach is a swift and efficient way to decongest the court’s causelist and save judicial time.
SBLPAUTHORS
