Was helping someone close to me think through this tonight and I genuinely did not realise how complicated this is until I started researching.
Short answer: it matters a lot, especially if there is any property or financial asset sitting in India.
Here is the gap most people fall into. You file in Canada after your one-year separation, get the decree, consider yourself done. Except a Canadian divorce is only automatically valid in Canada. For Indian courts to recognise it, either both spouses were domiciled in Canada at the time, or the Indian spouse formally participated in the Canadian proceedings. If neither of those is true, the Indian spouse can challenge recognition and that challenge can drag for years.
The practical result: divorced in Canada, legally married in India. Simultaneously. With all the property, inheritance, and financial implications that carries.
The Hindu Marriage Act follows the marriage, not the geography. The Family Court in the city where the couple last lived together in India has jurisdiction regardless of where either spouse lives now. Filing there produces a decree that Indian courts automatically enforce which matters if there is any jointly held property, fixed deposit, or inheritance interest in India.
What I found most useful: the separation date is the foundation of both timelines. Canadian law needs twelve months from separation before a decree can be granted. Indian mutual consent divorce under Section 13B needs a six-month gap between first and second motion. Both run from the same date, so clarity on that date unlocks both processes.
Has anyone here navigated a cross-border divorce as an NRI specifically where the Indian spouse was still in India during the Canadian proceedings? Did the recognition issue come up, and how did you handle it?