Nullity of Marriage and Divorce
Any marriage can be voidable and may be annulled on the following grounds: the marriage has not been consummated due to impotency, contravention of the valid consent mental illness condition specified in Section 5, or that the respondent at the time of the marriage was pregnant by someone other than the petitioner. Divorce can be sought by husband or wife on certain grounds, including: adultery, cruelty, continuous period of desertion for two or more years, conversion to a religion other than Hindu, mental abnormality, venereal disease, and leprosy. A wife can also present a petition for the dissolution of marriage on the ground of if the husband marries again after the commencement of his first marriage or if the husband has been guilty of rape, sodomy, or bestiality. Despite the fact that marriage is held to be divine, the act does permit one spouse to separate if he/she is unhappy, if he/she can prove or identify the circumstances that have made the union untenable. Newly married couples cannot file a petition for divorce within one year of marriage.
Read more about this topic: Hindu Marriage Act
Famous quotes containing the words marriage and/or divorce:
“Men commonly couple with their idea of marriage a slight degree at least of sensuality; but every lover, the world over, believes in its inconceivable purity.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In a world where women work three times as hard for half as much, our achievement has been denigrated, both marriage and divorce have turned against us, our motherhood has been used as an obstacle to our success, our passion as a trap, our empathy for others as an excuse to underpay us.”
—Erica Jong (20th century)