mutual consent divorce
Under s.13B HMA the spouses may jointly petition for divorce on the ground that they have been living separately for one year or more, have not been able to live together, and have mutually agreed to dissolve the marriage. The second motion may be made not earlier than six months and not later than eighteen months after the first, and the court grants divorce if consent subsists.
The six-month period is directory, not mandatory, and the family court may waive it where there is no chance of reconciliation. Either spouse may withdraw consent before the decree. The Supreme Court can dissolve the marriage under Art. 142 without referring parties to the family court.
Example
The court waived the six-month cooling-off period in the mutual consent divorce since the parties had lived apart for four years and settled all claims.
In Indian law
- Section 13B, Hindu Marriage Act, 1955; s.28, Special Marriage Act, 1954
- Amardeep Singh v. Harveen Kaur, 2017 INSC 896: waiting period may be waived
- Shilpa Sailesh v. Varun Sreenivasan, 2023 INSC 468: dissolution under Art. 142
See also
divorce · irretrievable breakdown of marriage · mubarat
Read more in the study notes
- Conciliation under industrial, family and marriage laws (Alternative Dispute Resolution Systems)
- Divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act (Family Law I - Hindu Law)
- The Indian Divorce Act, 1869: dissolution, nullity and judicial separation (Family Law II - Mohammedan Law)
- Family law, modernisation and social transformation (Law and Social Transformation in India)
- Hindu marriage: aims, forms, rites and changes (Sociology - Indian Society Continuity and Change)
- Muslim marriage (nikah, mehr, talaq) and Christian marriage (Sociology - Indian Society Continuity and Change)