Tennakoon v. Tennakoon – sllr 1984 volume 2 page 217

In the case between the appellant wife and the respondent husband, the court addressed whether a seven-year separation a mensa et thoro constitutes sufficient ground for divorce under section 608(2) of the Civil Procedure Code, or whether further proof of matrimonial fault under section 19 of the Marriage Registration Ordinance is required. It was held that section 608(2) provides only a procedural mechanism for expedited relief and does not dispense with the substantive legal grounds for divorce. The holding reaffirmed that entitlement to divorce must be established under the substantive law, specifically by proving one of the grounds prescribed by section 19 of the Marriage Registration Ordinance, regardless of the period of separation. This interpretation underscores the distinction bet