"What Do We Do With Shaadi.com?" Irked Top Court In Matrimonial Dispute Case

The Supreme Court while hearing a case involving matrimonial discord today, expressed concern about the online platform Shaadi.com. When a counsel told the court that mediation has failed multiple times and the husband has not met the wife for the last two years, Justice JB Pardiwala asked "Shaadi.com? You met on Shaadi.com?"

When Counsel informed the court that the estranged couple indeed met in the matrimonial platform, Justice Pardiwala asked "What do we do with this shaadi.com?"

He ultimately asked the Counsel to try mediation once again.

The remark comes days after Anupam Mittal --- the founder of Shaadi.com -- was granted protection from coercive action in a case where a man committed fraud with a woman who met her on the platform.

On Tuesday (February 3), the Supreme Court had granted Anupam Mittal -- the founder and CEO of shaadi.com -- eight weeks' interim protection from coercive action to in connection with a cheating case registered by a woman against a man she allegedly met through the website in Hyderabad. 

The court set aside an earlier order by the Telangana High Court, which had refused to quash the criminal proceedings against Mittal.
A bench, comprising Justices P K Mishra and NV Anjaria, sent back the matter to the High Court and directed it to decide the case afresh on merits. 

This will involve determining the extent of a matrimonial platform's liability when its users defraud each other. 

On Tuesday, Mittal had submitted in Supreme Court that shaadi.com merely acts as a matchmaking platform and cannot be held responsible for subsequent interactions between users, particularly where communications shifted to private platforms such as WhatsApp.