Since in our country marriage is considered a sacred bond so the
last opportunity known as a cooling period is given to the parties
to rethink their decision and explore possibilities of settlement
and cohabitation.
NOTE – The Hon’ble Supreme Court in the Case of Amardeep
Singh vs Harveen Kaur (2017 (8) SCC 746) held that the
minimum 6 months cooling down period can be waived off in
the case of mutual divorce. To waive off the statutory waiting
period of 6 months under Section 13B (2), the court will take the
following condition into considerations before waiving off the
cooling period and hence the same needs to be satisfied that
“The statutory period of six months specified in Section 13B (2), in
addition to the statutory period of one year under Section 13B (1) of
separation of parties is already over before the first motion itself;
Efforts for mediation/conciliation including efforts in terms of Order
XXXIIA Rule 3 CPC/Section 23(2) of the Act/Section 9 of the Family
Courts Act to reunite the parties have failed and there is no likelihood
of success in that direction by any further efforts;
The parties have genuinely settled their differences including
alimony, custody of the child or any other pending issues
between the parties; “
In such circumstances, a waiver application to waive off the
period of 6 months can be filed as early as one week after the first
motion giving reasons for the waiver. The Court may exercise its
discretion over the waiver of such a period.
• Second Motion to be filed within 18 months of First Motion.
When a final decision has been made by the parties to continue
with the further proceedings and appear for the second motion,
they can advance towards the final hearing. In this procedure
both the parties appear before the Family Court and get their
statement recorded. This process is done within 18 months of
filing the first motion petition.
• Final Decree of divorce by mutual consent passed by the court
When both the parties have given consent for dissolution of
marriage and no differences are left between them concerning
the alimony, custody of the child, maintenance, property, etc and
the court is contended subsequent to the hearing from both the
parties that, the claims inside the petition are valid and there
can't be any chance of compromise and living together,