Response

You have to complete 1 year of your marriage before you seek mutual consent divorce. The divorce decree will be granted after 6 months of your filing for divorce.

As per the Hindu Marriage Act petition for divorce can be allowed only after one year, before also you can file, but it is the discretion of the Court to allow the petition or not. After allowing the petition, time will take to grant divorce 6 months min. and max 7 months.

You Cannot file the divorce petition before one year of the Marriage. If you want to file divorce case you must file contesting case with some allegations against the respondent.

No, as per different divorce laws in India, to apply for a mutual consent divorce, the couple must have lived separately for at least one year. Therefore, couples cannot file a petition for mutual divorce before 1 year of getting married. As per Section 13 B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and Section 28 of the Special Marriage Act 1954, both parties can file for a mutual divorce only after living separately for a year. After this period, a court may prescribe another 6-month cool-off period as well. In case you wish to file for a divorce before this one year, you will have to go for a contested divorce and make your grounds very clear to the court. In some dire cases, such as torture, harassment, and other hardships, the court will grant a divorce even before the one-year mark. However, in such cases, the spouse will have to prove the grounds, such as cruelty, adultery, leprosy, or unsound mind.

Reference: “A contested divorce is provided in Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955

Incompatibility between the couple and/or irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not yet a valid ground for filing a Contested Divorce as per the Hindu Marriage Act in India, although for the same there has to be mutual consent for the divorce to be granted by the Courts.

The 9 major grounds under which a Contested Divorce is usually filed are:

If a spouse, after the solemnization of the marriage, had voluntary sexual intercourse with any person other than his or her spouse; or
If a spouse, after the solemnization of the marriage, treated his/her spouse with cruelty;
If a spouse, deserted his/her spouse for a continuous period of not less than 2 years;
If a spouse has ceased to be a Hindu by conversion to another religion;
If a spouse, has been incurable of unsound mind or has been suffering continuously or intermittently from mental disorder of such a kind and to such an extent that the other spouse cannot reasonably be expected to live with that spouse;
If a spouse, has been suffering from a virulent and incurable form of leprosy;
If a spouse, has been suffering from venereal disease in a communicable form;
If a spouse, has renounced the world by entering any religious order;
If a spouse, has not been heard of as being alive for a period of 7 years or more by those persons who would naturally have heard of him/her, had he/she been alive.

STEP BY STEP PROCESS AND PROCEDURE FOR FILING CONTESTED DIVORCE
1. You have to make up you mind. You have to decide if the time has come for it. Think again. Think hard.
2. You need to find a good divorce lawyer. He should be a subject matter expert, having integrity and a strong court presence. Meet your lawyer. You discuss the case with him openly. After meeting, you have to choose your divorce lawyer or divorce law firm
3. Your divorce lawyer then start the drafting of Contested Divorce Petition.
4. Divorce Petition is filed before Family ourt. ” – 202100333-20210041-2657 –

LAWAYZ-2023-494