Divorce Act, 1869

The Law Ministry is proposing to amend the Divorce Act, 1869 to reduce by half — from two years to one — the waiting period for Christians who have already decided to divorce.

• The present law mandates Christian couples to live separately for two years before they can apply for dissolution of marriage.
• The Centre’s move is triggered by the Supreme Court’s comments that this condition, called judicial separation, “makes no sense” today.

Significance of this move:

This proposed amendment would end the disparity between the Christian divorce law and other personal laws, including the Hindu Marriage Act, the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act and even the Special Marriage Act, all of which mandate only a year’s judicial separation.

Background:

The apex court, in two separate orders on July 13 and October 12 last year, had urged the Centre to take a decision and amend the law. The court had asked the Ministry of Law and Justice not only to file its reply but also take a decision on whether or not Sub-Section (1) of Section 10A [the legal provision which mandates a two-year pause before filing for dissolution of marriage] of the Divorce Act, 1869 is to be amended.

The court’s intervention again began in March 2015 when a petition contended that the two-year mandatory waiting period for Christians amounted to “hostile discrimination”. The petition argued that this was plain “oppression to the members of the Christian community intending to seek divorce by mutual consent.”