Wed Jan 29 21:52:18 IST 2025: ## Allahabad High Court Upholds One-Year Waiting Period for Hindu Divorce

**Allahabad, India** – The Allahabad High Court has affirmed the one-year waiting period for Hindu couples seeking divorce, upholding the sanctity of marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act. The court dismissed an appeal from a couple, Nishant Bharadwaj and Rishika Gautam, who sought to dissolve their marriage less than a year after the wedding.

The couple’s petition, filed under Section 13-B of the Hindu Marriage Act, was initially rejected by the Family Court in Saharanpur for failing to meet the one-year requirement stipulated in Section 14. The High Court, in a judgment dated January 15th, upheld this decision.

Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Donadi Ramesh, presiding over the double-judge bench, emphasized that the one-year period is intended to protect the institution of marriage, which is considered sacrosanct in Hindu tradition. Exceptions are made only in cases of “exceptional hardship or exceptional depravity.” The court found that the couple’s stated grounds of “mutual incompatibility” did not meet this criteria.

While the High Court dismissed the appeal, it left the door open for Bharadwaj and Gautam to refile their petition after the one-year period has elapsed. The ruling clarifies that routine disagreements are insufficient grounds to bypass the legally mandated waiting period for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act.

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