The couple got married on 8th December 2020 as per Hindu rituals, but differences started arising and so they started living separately, a lot of efforts were done by both the families for reconciliation but all those failed. In the end, they moved for mutual divorce in Ahmedabad’s family court.
According to 13B(2) of the Hindu Marriage Act, any couple seeking mutual divorce has to first go through a 12 months separation period followed by 6 months cooling down period. Hence, in total, they have to wait 18 months before a divorce petition is approved.
The couple also made a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under which they both agreed to withdraw all the police complaints made against each other.
The family judge firstly sent the couple for meditation but it failed, after which the couple moved for waiving of 6 months cooldown period but the court rejected the application, therefore they decided to move to the high court. The couple moved to high court under Articles 14, 226, and 227 of the Indian Constitution.
The High Court bench of Justice A.C. Joshi rejected the application stating that the Ahmedabad family court did the right thing by not interfering unnecessarily in the procedure. It also observed there was nothing illegality about the judgment.
The couples argued by stating a judgment of the supreme court in 2021 wherein the apex court waived off the cooldown period by using article 142 of the Indian Constitution. However, the High Court quickly pointed out that the order given by the apex court and the Ahmedabad family court does not have that power.
In the end, the court concluded that it was in complete agreement with the finding of the family court and does not find any reason to interfere in its judgment.
