Good or Bad! You decide, now you don’t need to wait for 6 months to live separately from your partner post-divorce
The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court has given an important decision on divorce on Monday. The court has said that if the husband-wife relationship has broken down and there is no scope for reconciliation, it can grant a divorce under Article 142 of the Constitution of India without referring it to the family court. For this, waiting for 6 months will not be mandatory.
The court said that it has laid down the factors on the basis of which a marriage can be considered beyond the possibility of reconciliation. Along with this, the court will also ensure that how will there be equality between husband and wife. This includes maintenance, alimony, and custody of children.
This decision was given by the constitution bench of Justice SK Kaul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Vikram Nath, Justice AS Oka, and Justice JK Maheshwari.
The issue was referred to a Constitution Bench to consider whether the waiting period for divorce by mutual consent could be waived under Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act. However, the bench also decided to consider whether the marriage can be dissolved leaving no scope for reconciliation.
On June 29, 2016, the Division Bench referred the matter to a five-judge constitution bench. After a long hearing on five petitions, the bench reserved its decision on September 20, 2022. The court had said that social change takes ‘some time’ and sometimes it is easy to bring a law, but it is difficult to persuade society to change with it.
Senior advocates Indira Jaising, Kapil Sibal, V Giri, Dushyant Dave, and Meenakshi Arora were made amicus curiae in the matter. Indira Jaising said that marriages that have ended completely should be ended under Article 142 of the Constitution. Dushyant Dave argued against this that when Parliament has not considered such cases as grounds for divorce, the court should not allow it.
V Giri said that completely broken marriages can be considered the basis of cruelty. The court also includes mental cruelty in this. Sibal said that the process of fixing maintenance and custody should be kept separate from the process of divorce so that both men and women can be saved from committing suicide. Meenakshi Arora said that the Supreme Court comes out of the purview of constitutional laws as soon as it implements its privilege under Article 142. This article embodies the ideas of justice, equality, and good intentions.