With the central cabinet giving nod to amendment of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 speeding up the divorce process and giving 50% share to wife in husband’s property, city lawyers practising in the family court are being flooded with calls from litigants.
The central government redrafted the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010 including the provision of irretrievable breakdown of marriage as a ground for faster divorce by reducing the six months cooling-off period and giving up to 50% share to the wife.
Family court lawyer, Rekha Koratkar told DNA, “Since the news of amendment of the bill came in, many eager couples and those who have already filed the divorce petitions started calling up to know more about the amendments and its implications. For the last week, I have received over 10 calls from clients who want to know more about the amendment and its pros and cons.”
“In fact, the new amendment makes it even more complicated to file a divorce petition. According to the prevailing procedure, the separation period mandatory for filing the divorce petition under provision of irretrievable breakdown of marriage is one year along with six months of cooling-off period. However, the amendment bill prescribes three years separation. In view of this, I recommend to my clients to go in for the divorce process without waiting for the amendment,” Koratkar said.
She added that the 50% share of wife in husband’s property too depends on many factors including discretion of the court on percentage of the share.
Advocate Pushpalata Surve said she has been receiving calls from eager divorce seekers. “I have received eight calls from clients who enquired about the new amendment and its usefulness for seeking faster and easier divorce,” she said. The bill seeks to amend The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Special Marriage Act, 1954 which govern marriages.
The amendments would help in reducing the number of pending cases and the parties will get divorce without prolonging the cases. Especially the one-time maintenance in terms of rights over husband’s property would reduce the workload of granting maintenance to wife.
