Dear esteemed lawyers and experts.
Need your expert opinion and guidance with my divorce case..Below, The snapshot
My marriage was an arranged marriage as per hindu customs. From Day 1 of the marriage there were problems between me and my wife along with a parallel track of problems between the families due to one reason. The issues eventually uncontrolled by my wife's family and finally after 3 months of the marriage, my wife left the matrimony home. I patiently waited for around 4 months and tried to reconcile but nothing fruitful happened. Also,The marriage was NOT CONSUMMATED during the 3 months of co-habitation.
Finally after 4 months of deliberation I filed for divorce praying cruelty with supporting affidavits as per my Lawyer's advice. The 1st hearing date was posted 3 months later
Meanwhile, My wife filed a counter petition requesting for her clothes and other items to be returned. We had already returned all the jewels that were given to us as Srithan. To this, we filed a counter petition accepting to return all her belongings. Due to lapse of time,This petition was merged along with the main HMOP.
Post this the case was routed for counselling and I attended the 1st counselling session and skipped the other 2 sessions as per my lawyer's advice. This resulted in the case being directed back to court.
Since then I have attended a marathon 22 hearings in the past 18 months with no fruitful results. Just petition over petition. My wife has not attended even 1 court hearing in the past 18 months. My wife's lawyer's stance is to wait for 2 hearings and finally file a petition on the 3rd hearing every time. The case even went for ex-parte but was set aside as my wife again filed a petition. So, Its just me running around the courts for now
My lawyer keeps saying that we will enter into arguments soon and the orders will be passed. But he has been saying this for the past 12 months but on the contrary my wife’s lawyer keeps filing a one page petition pleading the court to dismiss my petition since it was filed within 1 year of marriage.
Now, Just to ensure that we are on right track we consulted another lawyer thru’ reference by a close relative. He clearly mentioned that my petition is not maintainable since it was filed within 1 year and that this petition will get dismissed any day now or even after 5 years. He asked us to withdraw the petition and file a fresh petition.
Now, I am confused and lost…It has been almost 19 months since this case was filed, 26 months since the marriage date and 23 months since we have been separated with no contacts at all.
Pls. guide…Is my current petition maintainable or should I withdraw and file a fresh petition as per the other lawyer’s advise.
