Hi, I was in an arranged marriage for the past 4 months. Now with mutual consent we wish to end this alliance. We did not get a marriage certificate made till now. In this case, do we need to file for a divorce or get involved in any legal procedure ? or exchanging a document of understanding to exchange valuables and agreement to not pursue this further is enough ? Please advise.
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1) you can only file for divorce on expiry of one year of marriage
2) for divorce by mutual consent you have to stay separate for 1 year
3) please note that merely because marriage is not regd does not affect validity of marriage
4) mere signing of MOU wont serve the purpose . you need a court decree dissolving the marriage
1.Since the marriage was performed according to the Hindu Marriage Act and both of you have taken the 7 steps before the sacred fire in the presence of well wishers, now you cannot undo it.
2.Even though you have not taken marriage certificate but still the marriage is subsisting.
3.If any of the conditions for Annulment of marriage is satisfied, then you can go for the same immediately.
Thanks, Adv. Ajay and Adv. Shashidhar. Is it required that the MOU signed (to accept the mutual consent and to agree that no further money exchange will happen other than return of valuables) should be a legal document ? If so, what is that. Should it be a stamp paper or what kind of legal document, please elaborate. Also above you mentioned that a minimum 1 year is required to file for divorce, is this standing or as Adv. Shashidhar mentioned.we can file for divorce immediately ? What are the conditions under which this can be done ? Under section 13B of the Hindu marriage Act, I read what was mentioned by Adv. Ajay. Request you to elaborate so that I can decide the next steps based on that. Thank You.
1) you have specifically stated that you have been married for only 4 months . hence in my opinion you cannot file for divorce by mutual consent now
2) you have to stay separate for period of 1 year before filing for divorce by mutual consent
3) you cannot file for divorce now
4) in MCD enclose consent terms for return of jewellery and other gift articles , maintenance etc
1.After one year of marriage for Mutual Consent Divorce, file a joint petition U/S. 13-B of Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
2. Put necessary court Stamp and this is treated as a legal document.
3. What I mentioned was that you can go for Annulment of Marriage immediately if any of the following grounds is satisfied:-
(a) Bigamy
(b) Forced Consent
(C) Fraud
(D) Marriage prohibited by law
(e) Mental illness
(F) Inability to consummate Marriage (Impotent)
(g) Underage Marriage
You have said that you are married for 4 months, in which event you cannot file for divorce. No petition for divorce can be filed unless a year has expired from the date of marriage coupled with a one year separation period between the spouses.
Insted of enetring into MOU or something like its better you both go for MutualConsent Divorce as you will get proper authentic court orders of divorce which will be useful document for both of you in future.
Minimum one year of separation is required between the parties.
Procedure is:-
You will have to file the Mutual Consent Petition in the family court. Thereafter there will few sessions of counselling between the parties in the court itself.
Thereafter there will be six months of waiting period which is legally termed as cooling-off period.
And after six months divorce decree will be passed.
Regds,
Adv. Payal
