Hindu Marriage Act - Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010

Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010

Based on recommendations of the Law Commission, a legislation was proposed. The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010 to amend the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Special Marriage Act, 1954 to making divorce easier on ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage was introduced in the parliament in 2012. The Bill replaces the words "not earlier than six months" in Section 13-B with the words "Upon receipt of a petition."

It also provides a better safeguard to wife by inserting section 13D by which the wife may oppose the grant of a decree on the ground that the dissolution of the marriage will result in grave financial hardship to her and that it would in all the circumstances be wrong to dissolve the marriage.

New section 13E provides restriction on decree for divorce affecting children born out of wedlock and states that a court shall not pass a decree of divorce under section 13C unless the court is satisfied that adequate provision for the maintenance of children born out of the marriage has been made consistently with the financial capacity of the parties to the marriage.

Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010 makes similar amendments to the Special Marriage Act, 1954 by replaces the words "not earlier than six months" in Section 28 with the words "Upon receipt of a petition." and provides restriction on decree for divorce affecting children born out of wedlock.

However, there was strong opposition to this bill due to the objection that it will create hardships for women and that the bill strongly supports one party while both parties should be treated equal in divorce. Therefore the bill was amended to provide for wife's consent for waiver of six-month notice with the words "Upon receipt of petitions by the husband and the wife."

The Bill had not been passed by the parliament until April 2013.

Read more about this topic:  Hindu Marriage Act

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