Getting Divorce in India: What to Expect From this Legal Procedure

Taking of divorce is really a difficult task in any country of the world. It is also equally difficult in India. As I have stayed for a long time in India and was personally involved in some of such divorce cases of close friends and the relatives, I am aware of the main steps and the procedure of taking divorce in India. Though I wish that no one should need to take divorce, I will try to cover the detailed tips and procedure for taking the divorce in India in case any body reaches to that stage unfortunately.

Both husband and the wife can file a case for divorce in India. However, the husbands, around 62% in India, file majority of the cases. The legal procedure of divorce begins with serving of divorce notice to your spouse through a lawyer. This notice must contain the detailed reasons and the ground of asking for the divorce along with the proofs of the same. This notice must be served to the spouse and he or she must accept it personally by signing it at the time of receipt. The recipient must reply to this notice in writing within 15 days of its receipt to his or her counterpart who has sent the notice indicating his or her logical reasons for not agreeing to the divorce. If the sender of the legal notice receives no reply, he must send the second notice after 30 days of the first. And if no reply is still received even after serving the second receipt within next 30 days, he/she can file a suit in the court demanding for the divorce. Such suit can be filed in one of the two courts, civil court or the public court. The civil court is a government legal body and works based on the Indian government laws, while the public court is operated through the social leaders who try to console both the parties and try to make the compromise. It is preferable to go into such public court as it helps both the parties to withdraw their case for the divorce and live happily together. However, the civil court runs the suit, purely on the legal grounds, ignoring the human concept to some extent and can take many years to give the final verdict. There is always a waiting period of six months that has to be allowed before such civil court takes up the hearing of the case. The magistrate asks both the parties after the waiting period of six months is over weather they still want to get the divorce or not. Based on their reply, the proceedings are continued further.

It takes around 3 to 4 years at present to get the verdict of the civil court in India. The civil court will decide on giving of the divorce and also would fix up some financial amount to be paid by the earning member of the two as compensation. This amount is to be paid for the whole life or till the recipient gets remarried, and if it is not paid consecutively for three months, the individual not paying this can be prosecuted in the criminal court of low and he/she may get an imprisonment of around 6 months to 2 years depending upon the situation. Once any of the court approves the divorce, both the parties involved can remarry. But till then remarriage cannot be done as doing the second marriage while the first marriage is still valid is a criminal offence in India. However, this law does not apply to Muslims who are allowed to perform maximum four marriages. The copy of the court judgment is handed over to both the parties by the court for their future records. This legal procedure of getting divorce is extremely tedious, stressful, and torture as many unknown folds of the couple comes in public through many witnesses. Anybody who can give input in the divorce case can be called in the court of low as a witness by serving the summons to that effect. The person who is called as a witness by serving the court summons cannot refuse to appear as witness and has to reply to the questions asked by both the lawyers in the open court. The entire legal procedure of divorce is extremely time consuming even if both the parties are in agreement of the divorce. The waiting period of six months is to be completed even if both the parties are in agreement of divorce. The well-known divorce lawyers also charge heavy fees. Thus, the final result of such cases is never happy and can ruin the individual both financially and socially. Moreover, no one is allowed to appeal in the higher courts once the civil court gives the verdict.

My only suggestion is to remain always away from the divorce as far as it is possible and such proceedings may be taken up only as a last resort. If any of my readers have any doubts or questions in the matter, they all are free to contact me.