The Allahabad High Court has ruled that marriage between two Hindus is sacrosanct and cannot be dissolved within one year of marriage. The High Court stated that exceptional hardship or exceptional depravity must be present as per the Hindu Marriage Act for a divorce to be granted.
A double-judge bench comprising Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Donadi Ramesh emphasized that Section 14 of the Hindu Marriage Act imposes a one-year limitation on filing for divorce from the date of marriage, with exceptions for cases of exceptional hardship. Nishant Bharadwaj and Rishika Gautam, a married couple, had filed for mutual dissolution of marriage under Section 13-B of the Act.
In a judgment dated January 15, the division bench rejected the appeal filed by Bharadwaj, upholding the Family Court's decision that the minimum period for filing the application under Section 14 had not elapsed. The court emphasized the necessity of showing exceptional circumstances or depravity to invoke the proviso of Section 14 for divorce.
The court's ruling highlighted the sanctity of marriage between Hindus and stated that divorce can only be granted for reasons permissible by law. It emphasized that routine grounds of mutual incompatibility are not sufficient to bypass the one-year limitation for filing a divorce petition.
