When a foreign decree binds you in India
Section 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure sets out when a foreign judgment is conclusive, and the exceptions are what matter in matrimonial cases. A decree is not conclusive where it was not pronounced by a court of competent jurisdiction, was not given on the merits, was obtained by fraud, or is founded on a refusal to recognise Indian law where Indian law applied.
The practical consequence is that a spouse who obtains a quick divorce abroad on a ground unavailable under the statute the parties married under, and without the other spouse properly participating, may find the decree carries little weight in India. That does not make it harmless: it creates a limping marriage, valid in one country and not the other.
What an anti-suit injunction does
The order operates on the person, not the foreign court. It restrains a party amenable to the Indian court’s jurisdiction from initiating or continuing proceedings abroad.
The child abduction dimension
A large share of these disputes involve children removed from or retained outside India. India is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, so the remedy here is a habeas corpus petition before the High Court or a custody petition before the Family Court.
Indian courts approach these as questions of the child’s welfare rather than as mechanical returns. Where a child has been taken abroad, prompt applications, and coordinated advice in both jurisdictions, matter more than in almost any other family matter.