A genuinely significant, recent development: Sri Lanka's Reciprocal Recognition, Registration and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, No. 49 of 2024 (effective 28 March 2025) created, for the first time, a formal statutory process for recognizing foreign divorce decrees in Sri Lanka -- and India is confirmed as one of the designated reciprocating countries, which directly benefits NRIs with ties to both India and Sri Lanka.
A new, more direct path to recognizing an Indian divorce decree in Sri Lanka
Until recently, Sri Lanka had no dedicated statutory framework for recognizing foreign divorce
decrees -- recognition depended on case-by-case common-law principles. The Reciprocal Recognition,
Registration and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, No. 49 of 2024 changed that, taking effect from
Gazette No. 2429/51 dated 28 March 2025. It creates a formal process, through the District Court, for
recognizing and registering foreign judgments -- including divorce decrees -- from a list of designated
reciprocating countries, and India is confirmed to be on that list. An application generally must be made
within 10 years of the foreign judgment. This is genuinely useful news for the many families with ties
to both India (particularly Tamil Nadu) and Sri Lanka, since it replaces case-by-case uncertainty with a
defined statutory process.
What this does not change: the underlying recognition criteria in India
The 2024 Act governs how a foreign (including Indian) judgment is recognized in Sri Lanka -- it does
not change how Indian courts treat a Sri Lankan divorce decree. Indian courts continue to assess a
foreign divorce decree against the conditions in Section 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908,
particularly for a contested (non-mutual-consent) divorce. An NRI couple with ties to both countries
should not assume a decree is automatically enforceable in the other country without checking the
applicable framework on that side.
Maintenance for an NRI spouse
Maintenance claims by or against an NRI spouse settled in Sri Lanka can be pursued under India's
personal-law statutes (such as the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955) or under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure, depending on the couple's religion and the forum chosen -- enforcement against a Sri
Lanka-based spouse's assets or income can be more complex than a purely domestic case and often benefits
from coordinated advice on both the Indian and Sri Lankan sides.
