Philip Perrins, instructed by GN Law, acted for the successful applicant in Monisha Mahtani v Vivek Hariram Mahtani [2023] EWHC 2988 before Mr James Ewins KC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge.

The decision concerned the applicant’s application for an order, under s.51(3) of the Family Law Act 1986, that the court refuse to recognise the divorce that was obtained by the respondent in Indonesia, to allow her English divorce petition and financial remedies application to proceed. 

The court found that the respondent had deliberately prevented steps being taken for giving notice of the Indonesian proceedings to the applicant by hiding from the Indonesian court the applicant’s whereabouts and the means of communicating with her, which he knew. The court exercised its discretion to refuse to recognise the Indonesian divorce and adopted the words of Mostyn J in Liaw v Lee [2016] 1 FLR 533 “…there is the compelling argument that to decline to refuse recognition in this case would be grossly unjust and would in effect reward dishonesty and sharp practice. It would send out a signal that conduct such as I have described is tolerable…”