PRAYAGRAJ: A Hindu marriage is “sacrosanct” and cannot be dissolved within a year of the wedding on grounds of mutual incompatibility unless it involves “exceptional hardship or depravity”, the Allahabad high court said while rejecting a couple’s petition challenging a family court’s refusal to annul their union.The division bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Donadi Ramesh cited Section 14 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, which limits divorce filings within a year of marriage to cases where the mentioned problems exist.”On routine grounds of mutual incompatibility between the parties, it would not be open for the parties to seek exemption from the one-year limitation in filing such a petition,” the bench said in its Jan 15 ruling.The couple had filed for mutual dissolution of their marriage under Section 13-B of the same legislation, which the principal judge of Saharanpur family court refused to accept on the ground that the minimum period they needed to spend as husband & wife hadn’t elapsed.The HC bench took the same line, specifying that there was “no exceptional circumstance”, as specified in Section 14 of the Act, to allow the couple to file for divorce within a year of them getting married. The court left it open for the couple to move a fresh application after a year of their marriage.
Can’t dissolve Hindu marriages in a yearr: High Court | India News
