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Amit Kumar v. Suman Beniwal

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 875Decided 11 Dec 2021
Civil Appeal No. 7650 of 2021
Justice Indira Banerjee · Justice J.K. Maheshwari

Background

Amit Kumar (an IPS officer) and Suman Beniwal (an IFS officer) married in September 2020 but separated just three days later due to irreconcilable differences. After living apart for about a year, they jointly filed for divorce by mutual consent and sought to waive the mandatory six-month "cooling-off" period under Section 13B(2) of the Hindu Marriage Act. Both the Family Court, Hissar and the Punjab and Haryana High Court refused the waiver, reading an earlier Supreme Court precedent as requiring a minimum 18 months' separation before the waiver could be granted: a threshold this couple had not yet met.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the lower courts had misread its earlier guidance in Amardeep Singh v. Harveen Kaur: the four factors listed there (such as the 18-month separation) are illustrative considerations for High Courts/Family Courts to weigh, not rigid mandatory preconditions, and are in any case not binding on the Supreme Court's own extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution. Finding that the marriage was a complete non-starter (the couple lived together for only three days), that reconciliation efforts had failed, and that further delay would only prolong the couple's agony, the Court set aside both lower orders and directly granted a decree of divorce by mutual consent using its Article 142 powers.

Lesson Learnt

The six-month waiting period for mutual-consent divorce is not an absolute legal bar: courts can waive it where there is clearly no chance of reconciliation, though it still generally takes the Supreme Court's special constitutional powers to override a lower court's refusal to do so.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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