Divorce under section 10 (x)

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When you state you wife filed petition for divorce under section 10X what you fail to mention under which Act this section 10X the petition for divorce is filled.

As I know that only Divorce Act, 1869 has provision for dissolution of marriage under section 10 hence this Petition must be filled under the section 10X of the Divorce Act, 1869 as this must be a Christian Marriage under the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872.

The mediation was conducted by the Family Court between both parties where an agreement was reached that you both want dissolution of marriage and you have no objection for the petition filled by your wife for dissolution of marriage on the grounds of cruelty.

Once you state in the proceedings that you agree to all charges of cruelty made by the wife against you for obtaining divorce, the Family Court will in one stroke will dismiss the Petition for dissolution of marriage on the ground of collusion between both you and your wife.

There can be an agreement for money/financial matters between both parties as well dissolution of marriage by mutual consent under section 10A of the Divorce Act, 1869 but not on the ground any grounds as specified under section 10 of the Divorce Act, 1869.

Now you will come out will come out with suggestion of dissolution of marriage by mutual consent under section 10A of the Act, for that you need to wait for 2 years as there has to be separate living before you file joint petition for dissolution of marriage by mutual consent under section 10A of the Divorce Act, 1869 and your marriage is still not 1 year old.

So the best is that you go with clauses of agreement wherein you only agree to provide her financial relief in the form of Permanent Maintenance and Alimony etc. and no further claim past, present or future for the same. You can state further in the agreement that no criminal complaints/cases against you, your parents and other relatives will be filled by the wife or her parents/relatives with regard to issues such as dowry, domestic violence etc. No mention about the pending divorce case or charges made therein in the said agreement made between both parties in mediation centre.

There is no need to mention any thing about the pending petition of divorce in the court, there after filling the said agreement between both in the mediation centre just move out and let your defence in the said case be set aside and case proceeded ex-parte against you.

Let the said case for dissolution of marriage decided ex-parte by the Family Court on the basis of her petition and statement in her favour, you can always apply and get the final order and decree of dissolution of marriage from the court and use for remarriage purposes.

If you still want to proceed with MCD, print a wedding card with 2yrs old date that would solve the legal purpose.

The suggestion of using wrong wedding card to show back date of marriage is absolutely wrong suggestion and such thing should never be done in court cases as this will amount to using forged document for court proceedings.

The parties were never married two years back and their marital status at that time was that of unmarried person so there was no question of dissolving the back dated marriage, this will amount to obtaining void decree of divorce from the court by using false statement/documentary evidence on oath which is perjury, when discovered will take such person(s) behind the bars for 7 years.

Dear Vijay and all learned members of this forum,

If I understand you right - you are suggesting that we remove clause (b) (which states that my wife withdraws all allegations against me) from the compromise petition? I guess you are also suggesting that we use this agreement purely for financial matters understanding and the actual divorce matter be settled through "ex-parte" proceedings against me. Am I right?

Our current plan is slightly different  and would greatly appreciate if you can comment on our current plan. As you will understand, the my and my wife learned counsel have agreed on the plan below and I do not want to be the "wise man" telling them what they should they. Hope you agree.

In our case, the mediation centre refused our case (after me and wife through the mediation process and agreed to settle the matter) as not being fit for mediation on technical ground. Hence, we (Me and my wife) decided want to file a compromise petition before the court and request the honorable court to reduce it into a decree granting divorce. The current bone of contention is just clause (b) of the compromise petition which states that my wife withdraws all allegations against me. What is wrong with this plan? My wife wants me to remove clause (b) and I am open to agreeing to that if having clause (b) will jeopardise or delay the court proceedings.

Please comment on our current plan. 

Dear Stalker, Thank you for the reply. We are not considerig any illegal means. Our's is a case of genuine intention gone awry and I am sure that law allows us to settle this matter in a reasonably timely manner as both of us are on the same page.

The clause (b) states that the wife withdraw all allegations against the husband, what and where these allegation mentioned? If in the divorce petition, which is act of cruelty that entitles dissolution of marriage? If this is so than on what ground the marriage will be dissolved under section 10X of the Divorce act,1869?

If the question of withdrawing allegations other that what are mentioned as the grounds for divorce in the petition than nothing wrong withdrawing those allegations.

As far requesting the Hon'ble court to decree the compromise agreement between both of you is concerned as dissolution of marriage than that will not be possible, the proper procedure for dissolution of marriage need to be followed for issuing decree of dissolution by the court, your compromise agreement is to reduce delay in the process of divorce in the court, but the provisions of the Divorce Act, 1869 and the Civil Procedure Code are to be followed.

Dear Vijay,

The allegations that clause (b) is refering to are the same allegations filed in the divorce petition. 

If I move clause (b), then there wont be any grounds for divorce. Right?

Here is my concern with removing clause (b):

• My conscience is not letting me agree to the allegations in the divorce petition. At the same time, I do not want to spend time fighting the nitty gritty of the contents of the allegations.
• The exact wording of clause (b) is: "In view of the above settlement between the parties the petitioner hereby withdraws all the allegations against the respondent"
• Is there a way to rephrase the above clause so that, the compromise petition will serve the purpose of reducing the delay in divorce proceeding and my reputation and conscience are clear.
• Also is this clause good enough so that neither of us trouble the other for any more money, alimony, maintenance etc., "The petitioner and respondent undertake that they have no other claims of any nature whatsoever as against each other past, present or future under any circumstances."

Best regards

PLEASE IGNORE THE ABOVE REPLY DUE TO TYPOS AND CONSIDER THIS

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Dear Vijay,

The allegations that clause (b) is refering to are the same allegations filed in the divorce petition. 

So, if I understand you correctly, removing clause (b), would result in having no ground for divorce. Am I right?

However, here is my concern with removing clause (b):

• 1. My conscience is not letting me agree to the allegations in the divorce petition. At the same time, I do not want to spend time fighting the nitty gritty of the contents of the allegations.
• 2. The exact wording of clause (b) is: "In view of the above settlement between the parties the petitioner hereby withdraws all the allegations against the respondent"
• 3. Is there a way to rephrase the above clause so that, the compromise petition will serve the purpose of reducing the delay in divorce proceeding and my reputation and conscience are clear.
• 4. Also is the following clause good enough so that neither of us trouble the other for any more money, alimony, maintenance etc., "The petitioner and respondent undertake that they have no other claims of any nature whatsoever as against each other past, present or future under any circumstances."

Best regards

Agreed with Senior Adv. Vijay Sir.

but I failed to understand when its Mutual Consent, which is mutually agreed between both the parties, howz showing back date of marriage treated as fraud? I am of the opinion that it facilitates to bypass the legal procedure.

If its fraud, then its fraud by both the parties and one party cannot go for any cases.

In the view of an exparte divorce, the cruelty is accepted and it works againist the guy as it can spoil his chances of a remarriage in the future.

All civil and criminal allegations must be withrawn in case of MCD.

www.mehnat.in

Dear Vijay,

The allegations that clause (b) is refering to are the same allegations filed in the divorce petition. 

So, if I understand you correctly, removing clause (b), would result in having no ground for divorce. Am I right?

However, here is my concern with removing clause (b):

• 1. My conscience is not letting me agree to the allegations in the divorce petition. At the same time, I do not want to spend time fighting the nitty gritty of the contents of the allegations.
• 2. The exact wording of clause (b) is: "In view of the above settlement between the parties the petitioner hereby withdraws all the allegations against the respondent"
• 3. Is there a way to rephrase the above clause so that, the compromise petition will serve the purpose of reducing the delay in divorce proceeding and my reputation and conscience are clear.
• 4. Also is the following clause good enough so that neither of us trouble the other for any more money, alimony, maintenance etc., "The petitioner and respondent undertake that they have no other claims of any nature whatsoever as against each other past, present or future under any circumstances."

Best regards

Originally posted by : Vijay Raj Mahajan
	The clause (b) states that the wife withdraw all allegations against the husband, what and where these allegation mentioned? If in the divorce petition, which is act of cruelty that entitles dissolution of marriage? If this is so than on what ground the marriage will be dissolved under section 10X of the Divorce act,1869?   If the question of withdrawing allegations other that what are mentioned as the grounds for divorce in the petition than nothing wrong withdrawing those allegations.   As far requesting the Hon'ble court to decree the compromise agreement between both of you is concerned as dissolution of marriage than that will not be possible, the proper procedure for dissolution of marriage need to be followed for issuing decree of dissolution by the court, your compromise agreement is to reduce delay in the process of divorce in the court, but the provisions of the Divorce Act, 1869 and the Civil Procedure Code are to be followed.

You want to have cake and eat it too, well that is not possible in court cases, you want divorce to be finalised against you and at the same time you do not want the cruelty allegations made against you in divorce case to continue as far the terms and conditions for mutual settlement between both of you is concerned.

You engaged advocates for the job who charged heavy fee from you both and still they are unable to work out this issue between both of you and here you seek free legal advice from senior lawyers who have neither been engaged nor paid anything, now that is not fair at all on your part.

Section 10 of the Divorce Act, 1869 has many more grounds for divorce and these can be explored and fresh petition for divorce on any of these can be worked out, I have done that in many of my cases where divorce by mutual consent was not expedient.

It is not necessary that all divorce matter to be based on ground of cruelty and desertion, if the intelligence of the engaged lawyer and party co-operation exist the divorce can be obtained on other grounds too.

Dear Vineet sir,

Although I am not a lawyer however I have spent few years around court and learnt some the hard way.

Bottomline for a Divorce is - either through MCD or through a contest. For either category, there has to be a reason/ground for Divorce.

In your case as I understand, it started with contest, however you want to close it something like MCD (mutual consent). From the little I learnt of law so far, either you go the 'compromise' way which and your wife are trying...and that means compromising over the petition she filed and you contested....for the purpose of compromise and closure of her petition and your contest, she may want to retain the allegations with assumption that you and her are willing to compromise and close the case which is based on her allegations. I believe you have more interest in closure than her else she can continue pressing her charges. Its an opportunity for you in that case to accept the allegations in her petition and that will get you what you want as closure of the case and divorce as a result.  You can ofcourse, modify clause b) to only relate to cases or monetory matters based allegations OTHER THAN the grounds for Divorce in her petition.

The other option could be - she withdraws the petition itself and both of you file a fresh peitition for MCD......however, the catch is, in this scenario i) legal proceedings may demand minimum required time (your advocate can advise on the additional time required), ii) even though she may agree for MCd however she can always take a 'U' turn and file other allegations and/or delay the MCD.

So, if you want an advice from an already 'pained & harassed' ex-husband....just try to close the current agreement she is getting into, without making too much fuss..... which is currently to massage your ego of the conserns regarding her allegations pertaining to Divroce. Just make sure your b) point gets modified to only talk about any other allegations/case apart from already filed in Divorce petition.

Else, you need to have plenty of patience to simply continue the contest.............provided your plead is correct, genuine against the allegations.