• Process for filing divorce as NRI

Dear Team, 

I am a 34 year old NRI residing in Abu Dhabi since Dec 2012. Before Dec 2012 I was living and working in Delhi NCR. 

I got married on 24 Feb 2014 in Delhi and it was a love marriage. At the time of marriage, my in-laws and husband were staying in Delhi and my parents were staying in Ahmedabad. My husband got a job in Mumbai in Aug 2014 and he is residing in Mumbai since then.

I was travelling back to India to meet my husband and family once in 2-3 months for 2-3 days. Till now we are living separate, I in Abu Dhabi and him in Mumbai. He came only once to meet me here in Dec 2015 along with his family.

For these two years I was pushing my husband to stay together, either I come back to India or he comes here. For some reasons or another he delayed the process of staying together. And I got to know that he was having an extra marital affair in Mumbai. In these two years, we bought two properties in India (2 BHK in Ahmedabad for 34 L and 1 BHK in Goa for 30 L), for which I paid 24 L for Ahmedabad property and 7 L for Goa property. Both the properties are in his name, and we had lot of fight to put my name in Goa property but as I was staying here, he went ahead and got the property in his name. Both properties are given on rent and the money is coming to him.

We have been having constant fights since April 2015 where I was extremely unwell and living alone here. Most of these fights I picked up as I was not getting his time, attention, commitment and responsibility.

Finally, after knowing all these things, I have decided to move out of this relation. I have put across my will to divorce him in Feb 2016. And since then he is trying to convince me to not take this decision. But, as I have lost my trust, liking and patience I am in no interest to re-consider my decision.

I need expert advice for the following:
1. What are the steps I need to follow to file for a mutual divorce
2. Where should I apply for a divorce - Delhi (marriage took place and got registered in Delhi) or Mumbai (where my husband is residing) or Ahmedabad (where my father is residing and my passport has permanent address mentioned as)
3. How soon should I apply for the divorce? He has got a job in Dubai and would be joining in first week of April. 
4. I need some recommendations for a good lawyer in the place where I can apply for the divorce
5. When all I would have to come to India for these proceedings. How much time it takes?

Waiting for your response.

Regards
Sonal
Asked 8 years ago in Family Law
Religion: Hindu

First answer received in 30 minutes.

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7 Answers

1( you can issue divorce notice to husband

2) divorce petition can be filed in delhi or Mumbai or Ahmedabad

3) yiu can file for divorce at the earliest

4) you can search in kaanoon. Com website of lawyers in your city

5) divorce by mutual consent takes 6 months

6) contested divorce 5 years

7) it is better yiu come down to india fpr filing divorce petition

8) you can execute POA for filing divorce petition but will have to come India to give evidence

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
94520 Answers
7485 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. What are the steps I need to follow to file for a mutual divorce.

==Since your marriage has been performed in India, you have apply divorce in India. Atleast twice you have to come to India. First time at the time of presentation of the Petition and second time at the time of evidence and Judgement. After filing the petition, you have to wait 6 months which is mandatory as per the Hindu Marriage Act. Another two months for misc. works. Hence, in total it may take approximately 8 months to get mutual consent divorce.

2. Where should I apply for a divorce - Delhi (marriage took place and got registered in Delhi) or Mumbai (where my husband is residing) or Ahmedabad (where my father is residing and my passport has permanent address mentioned as).

==There are three options (1) At the place of last resided in India, (2) at the place of marriage, (3) at the place of your husband residing at the time of filing petition.

3. How soon should I apply for the divorce? He has got a job in Dubai and would be joining in first week of April.

==If your husband is willing for divorce, then only you can file mutual consent petition in India. Otherwise, You have to file normal divorce petition and you have to take grounds of cruelty, adultery (illegal affair) and desertion. The first option will take 8 months as I explained above, the second option may take 3 to 4 years long time since your husband is not accepting for mutual consent.

4. I need some recommendations for a good lawyer in the place where I can apply for the divorce.

==If you are interested, I can take up your matter. As your matter is complicated, it is better to contact me through kaanoon.com phone consultation. I will explain you in detail.

5. When all I would have to come to India for these proceedings. How much time it takes?

==First you decided what type of divorce petition you are going to file, whether mutual consent or contested divorce. You have to clarify me that whether your husband is agreeing for divorce or not.

Ravinder Pasula
Advocate, Hyderabad
400 Answers
125 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. Mutual Divorce requires a positive agreement among the spouses to end their marriage by filing the papers in the court. The terms and conditions, which would govern the dissolution of marriage, will have to be reduced to writing. If he is not ready for mutual divorce then you can unilaterally file for divorce on the ground of cruelty.

2. It can be filed in Delhi or Mumbai but not Ahmedabad.

3. You can apply immediately so that he can receive the court notice before he leaves India.

4. You do not have to come to India to attend the court except for your witness deposition. It may take around a year to 18 months.

Ashish Davessar
Advocate, Jaipur
30763 Answers
972 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. For filing a mutual consent divorce petition jointly, both of you shall have to agree on terms of the divorce. Once the terms are settled, both of you can jointly file the MCD petition seeking a decree of divorce which will be disposed off within 6 & 1/2 months. If he does not agree for MCD, you shall have to file a Divorce Suit on some acceptable ground and one such acceptable ground is cruelty, both mental and physical,

2. You both can file MCD at the Court having jurisdiction of the place where any of you are staying. You can file contested divorce petition at the place where he is staying or where your parents are staying,

3. You can file the divorce suit immediately and serve him the notice when he is still in India,

4. First you decide where you want to file the divorce suit and after that google search your lawyer from that place,

5. For MCD, you shall have to appear before the Court on the day of the 2nd motion ui.e. on the final day and in case of contested divorce, you shall have to appear before the ourt for giving evidence.

Krishna Kishore Ganguly
Advocate, Kolkata
27191 Answers
726 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. What are the steps I need to follow to file for a mutual divorce

Since you have decided to take divorce from him, if he is agreeing to your decision to divorce, you can ask him to sign the papers for mutual consent divorce but you can put the conditions of your house property to be given to you, i.e., either the house in Ahmadabad or the one in Goa. . Besides, you can conclude other issues including one time settlement alimony amount, exchange of your articles etc.

2. Where should I apply for a divorce - Delhi (marriage took place and got registered in Delhi) or Mumbai (where my husband is residing) or Ahmedabad (where my father is residing and my passport has permanent address mentioned as)

Divorce case can be filed at one the three places namely: the place of your marriage or the place where you both last resided or the place where your current residence (Ahmadabad)

3. How soon should I apply for the divorce? He has got a job in Dubai and would be joining in first week of April.

Even if you apply for it tomorrow itself, both have to wait for 6 moths for the date of second motion, so he flying to Dubai during April cannot help you to get the divorce case pronounced within that date.

4. I need some recommendations for a good lawyer in the place where I can apply for the divorce

You first choose the place of divorce and then look for a good lawyer.

5. When all I would have to come to India for these proceedings. How much time it takes?

In mutual consent divorce you have to visit court twice, i.e. first during filing which is called as first motion and again after 6 months during second motion to express your willingness for divorce.

T Kalaiselvan
Advocate, Vellore
84711 Answers
2172 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Hi,

Your place of filing the suit can be ahmedabad or delhi depending on your convinience. Mutual consent divorce will take not more than 4months. Both of you should come to court and sign the papers for filing and on next scheduled date file MCD papers. So only 3 visits to court are required for mutual consent divorce.

Rajgopalan Sripathi
Advocate, Hyderabad
2173 Answers
394 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Hi, As per law you can file a petition for divorce in the following places.

(a) Where marriage taken place,(b) Where husband and wife last resided or (3) Where you are ordinarily reside or where your husband reside.

2. So you can choose any one of the place for filling a petition for divorce.

Pradeep Bharathipura
Advocate, Bangalore
5604 Answers
335 Consultations

4.5 on 5.0

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