Mutual consent divorce

There are few essentials that must be fulfilled to get mutually divorced:

1. The parties should be living separately for the period of at least 1 year before filing the petition. Living separately doesn’t necessarily means that the spouses live in different places. The parties could be living in the same house but there can still be a distance between the two.
2. The second essential is if the parties can’t live together anymore. If parties can’t stand each other and can no longer live happily together then they can get divorce by mutual consent.

After filing a petition for divorce by mutual consent, the parties are given a waiting period of 6 months, also known as a cooling period and it may extend up to 18 months. During this time the parties must introspect and think about their decision.

If the parties are still not able to live together after the cooling period, then the divorce petition shall be passed by the district judge.

In Pradeep Pant & anr v. Govt of NCT Delhi, the parties were married and had a daughter from their wedlock. However, due to temperamental differences between them, they were not able to live together and decided to live separately. Despite putting their best efforts, they were unable to reconcile their marriage and could not see themselves living together as husband and wife ever again. A divorce petition was jointly filed and issues such as maintenance and custody of their child were decided and agreed upon by both. The court observed that there was no scope of reconciliation and granted a decree of divorce.

The procedure for getting divorce through mutual consent is:

1. Firstly, a divorce petition has to be filed by both of the parties in a family court of their region.
2. After that the parties shall appear before the court and their statements are recorded. If the court is satisfied then the first motion is said to have been passed and then the court will give cooling period of 6-18 months to the spouses before they are able to file second motion.
3. After the cooling period if the parties still want to get divorced and if all the issues of the divorce are mutually agreed upon then the decree of divorce is passed after this step.

We at Chaklan and associates help our clients in getting mutual divorce.