LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court held that marriage between two Hindu individuals is sacrosanct and cannot be dissolved within one year of marriage on grounds of mutual incompatibility. The HC cited that dissolution is only allowed in cases of exceptional hardship or exceptional depravity as provided under Section 14 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.The parties had filed for mutual dissolution of marriage under Section 13-B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. However, the same was rejected by the principal judge, Family Court, Saharanpur on the grounds that minimum period for moving the application as provided under Section 14 of the Act, had not elapsed.Passing the order, the High Court division bench, comprising Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Donadi Ramesh, noted that Section 14 provided for a one-year limitation from the date of marriage to file for divorce. “The provision contained under Section 14 of the Act has a laudable object to subserve, in as much as the legislature has put an embargo in entertaining an application for dissolution of marriage, within one year for specific performance,” the court said. “Marriage between two Hindus is sacrosanct and its dissolution would be permissible only for the reasons permissible in law. On routine grounds of mutual incompatibility between the parties, it would not be open for the parties to seek exemption from one-year limitation in filing such petition,” the court added.Accordingly, the court, in its judgement dated January 15, dismissed the first appeal filed by Nishant Bharadwaj challenging the order of the Family Court. However, the court left it open for the parties to move a fresh application after expiry of the year-long period.
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