Coronavirus led to broken marriages, says Madras High Court judge

The judge made the observation after finding that in the last three months, almost every other matrimonial dispute dealt by him was with respect to marriages that had taken place between 2020 and 2022.

The coronavirus and the consequent COVID-19 lockdown had not only taken away human lives but also destroyed the institution of marriage during the period between 2020 and 2022, Justice N Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court said on Friday (October 16, 2026).

The judge made the observation after finding that in the last three months, almost every other matrimonial dispute dealt by him was with respect to marriages that had taken place between 2020 and 2022.

In more than 95% of those cases, the parties had hardly lived together for six to nine months and in some cases, they had lived together only for three months. Incidentally, that period was when there was a total lockdown due to the pandemic situation, he pointed out.