Divorce law in India

Grounds for divorce in India under each law

What a contested petition has to prove under the Hindu Marriage Act, the Special Marriage Act, the Divorce Act, the Parsi Act and the 1939 Act for Muslim wives, and how courts read the grounds most cases rest on.

Advocate Vishu KushwahaAdvocate, District Court Ghaziabad · Checked 28 October 2026

Needed for: A contested divorce. A mutual consent divorce needs no ground, only the period of separation and both spouses' consent.
Most used: Cruelty, including mental cruelty, and desertion for two years.
Not a ground: Irretrievable breakdown, before the Family Court. Only the Supreme Court can act on it.
Overview: Divorce in India: the law and the process.

A contested divorce, the kind one spouse files without the other's agreement, succeeds only if the petitioner proves a ground the governing Act recognises. Which Act governs depends on the religion of the spouses and how they married, as the divorce in India overview explains. The grounds overlap a good deal from one Act to the next, but the wording and the time limits differ, and a petition drafted under the wrong section, or with facts that do not reach the ground, fails however unhappy the marriage is. In 2019 the Personal Laws (Amendment) Act removed leprosy as a ground from all of these Acts.

Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (Section 13)

The Act covers Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs. Either spouse may seek divorce on the grounds in Section 13(1), where the other spouse:

has had voluntary sexual intercourse with someone else after the marriage (adultery);
has treated the petitioner with cruelty;
has deserted the petitioner for a continuous period of at least two years immediately before the petition;
has ceased to be a Hindu by converting to another religion;
has been incurably of unsound mind, or has suffered continuously or intermittently from a mental disorder of such a kind that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with them;
has been suffering from a venereal disease in a communicable form;
has renounced the world by entering a religious order;
has not been heard of as being alive for seven years or more by those who would naturally have heard.

Section 13(1A) adds two grounds open to either spouse, including the one at fault: there has been no resumption of cohabitation for a year or more after a decree of judicial separation, or no restitution of conjugal rights for a year or more after a decree for restitution.

Grounds only a wife can use: Section 13(2)

the husband had another wife living when this marriage took place, under a marriage before the Act;
the husband has, since the marriage, been guilty of rape, sodomy or bestiality;
an order for her maintenance has been passed under Section 18 of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act or under the criminal law (now Section 144 BNSS; old Section 125 CrPC), and cohabitation has not resumed for a year or more since;
she was married before 15 and repudiated the marriage after turning 15 but before 18.

No divorce petition can be filed within one year of the marriage without the court's leave on grounds of exceptional hardship or depravity (Section 14).

How courts read cruelty

Cruelty is the ground most contested divorces rest on, and the Act does not define it. Courts treat it as conduct of such a kind that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the other spouse, physical or mental. In Samar Ghosh v. Jaya Ghosh (2007) the Supreme Court listed examples of mental cruelty: sustained humiliation, a unilateral refusal of intercourse for a long time without reason, conduct that makes living together impossible, and similar patterns judged over the whole marriage. In K. Srinivas Rao v. D.A. Deepa (2013) it held that false criminal complaints and defamatory allegations against a spouse and the family can themselves be mental cruelty. The ordinary wear and tear of married life is not cruelty, and a petition that lists quarrels without showing their effect usually fails. The facts have to be pleaded with dates and proved with evidence the court can test.

How courts read desertion

Desertion means one spouse leaving the other permanently, intending to end cohabitation, without the other's consent and without reasonable cause; the Supreme Court set out these elements in Bipinchandra Shah v. Prabhavati (1956). It is about intention as much as distance. A spouse who left because of the other's cruelty has not deserted, and the one who drove them out may be the deserter. The two years must run without a break up to the date of the petition.

Special Marriage Act, 1954 (Section 27)

The Act governs court marriages, inter-faith marriages and any marriage registered under it. Either spouse may seek divorce where the other has committed adultery, has deserted the petitioner for two years or more, is undergoing a sentence of imprisonment of seven years or more, has treated the petitioner with cruelty, has been incurably of unsound mind or suffers from a mental disorder of the kind described above, has a communicable venereal disease, or has not been heard of as alive for seven years. As under the Hindu Act, failure to resume cohabitation for a year after a decree of judicial separation or restitution is also a ground. A wife may additionally rely on the husband's rape, sodomy or bestiality, or on a maintenance order followed by a year without cohabitation. Mutual consent is in Section 28, after a year of living separately.

Divorce Act, 1869 (Christians, Section 10)

Since the 2001 amendment, husband and wife have the same grounds. Either may seek divorce where the other has committed adultery, has ceased to be a Christian by conversion, has been incurably of unsound mind for at least two years, has had a communicable venereal disease for at least two years, has not been heard of as alive for seven years, has wilfully refused to consummate the marriage, has failed for two years to comply with a decree for restitution of conjugal rights, has deserted the petitioner for at least two years, or has treated the petitioner with such cruelty that the petitioner reasonably fears it is harmful or injurious to live with them. A wife may also rely on the husband's rape, sodomy or bestiality. Mutual consent under Section 10A requires two years of living separately, twice the period in the other Acts.

Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936 (Section 32)

Section 32 lists the grounds, among them wilful non-consummation, adultery, cruelty, desertion for two years, a sentence of imprisonment of seven years or more, a communicable venereal disease, and conversion from the Parsi religion; Section 32B allows divorce by mutual consent after a year of living separately. Parsi divorces are heard by the Parsi Chief Matrimonial Court or a District Parsi Matrimonial Court, which sits with delegates drawn from the community.

Muslim wives: Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 (Section 2)

A Muslim husband can divorce by talaq without going to court, within the limits the law now sets. A Muslim wife can obtain a decree from the court on any of these grounds:

the husband's whereabouts have not been known for four years;
he has neglected or failed to maintain her for two years;
he has been sentenced to imprisonment for seven years or more;
he has failed, without reasonable cause, to perform his marital obligations for three years;
he was impotent at the time of the marriage and continues to be;
he has been insane for two years or has a virulent venereal disease;
she was married before 15, repudiated the marriage before 18, and it was not consummated;
he treats her with cruelty, which the section describes to include habitual assault, an immoral life, disposing of her property, obstructing her religion, and unequal treatment where he has more than one wife;
any other ground recognised as valid under Muslim law.

Talaq, khula, mubarat and the rules on triple talaq are on the Muslim divorce in India page.

Irretrievable breakdown

Many marriages end in fact long before the law will end them, and the Law Commission has more than once recommended adding irretrievable breakdown as a ground. Parliament has not done so. In Shilpa Sailesh v. Varun Sreenivasan (2023) a Constitution Bench held that the Supreme Court can dissolve such a marriage under Article 142 to do complete justice, weighing the length of separation, the attempts at settlement and the arrangements for the spouse and children. The Family Court and the High Court cannot. A spouse with no ground to prove and no agreement from the other is therefore left with a long separation, a ground that later arises, or, in the rare case that reaches it, the Supreme Court.

Proving a ground

A ground is proved the way any civil case is: with the petitioner's own evidence, witnesses who saw what happened, and documents such as police complaints, medical records, messages and earlier court orders. The Family Court is not bound by the strict rules of the Evidence Act (now the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023) and may receive any material that helps it decide (Section 14, Family Courts Act), but the other spouse will cross-examine on every allegation. The petition fixes the case: facts left out of it are hard to bring in later. One-sided divorce explains the trial stage by stage.

Questions people ask

On what grounds can a husband file for divorce in India?

Under the Hindu Marriage Act a husband can use every ground in Section 13(1) and 13(1A): adultery, cruelty, desertion for two years, conversion, serious mental disorder, a communicable venereal disease, renunciation of the world, not being heard of for seven years, and failure to resume cohabitation for a year after a decree of judicial separation or restitution. The extra grounds in Section 13(2) are for the wife only.

Is mental cruelty a ground for divorce?

Yes. Cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act includes mental cruelty, and the Supreme Court gave examples in Samar Ghosh v. Jaya Ghosh (2007). In K. Srinivas Rao v. D.A. Deepa (2013) it held that false criminal complaints and defamatory allegations against a spouse can amount to mental cruelty. The conduct has to be proved and weighed as a whole, not one quarrel at a time.

Is irretrievable breakdown of marriage a ground for divorce in India?

Not in the Family Court. None of the Acts lists it. The Supreme Court can dissolve a marriage that has broken down beyond repair under Article 142 of the Constitution (Shilpa Sailesh v. Varun Sreenivasan, 2023), but only the Supreme Court has that power.

How long must a spouse be away for desertion?

At least two years immediately before the petition, under the Hindu Marriage Act, the Special Marriage Act and the Divorce Act. The leaving spouse must also have intended to end cohabitation, without the other spouse's consent and without reasonable cause.

Can a Muslim wife get a divorce through the court?

Yes, under Section 2 of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, on grounds such as the husband's failure to maintain her for two years, his absence for four years, imprisonment for seven years, failure to perform marital obligations for three years, or cruelty.

A contested divorce in Ghaziabad

Bring the marriage papers and a written note of the events you rely on, with dates. Chamber 817, District Court Complex, Raj Nagar District Centre (RDC), Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201002. Monday to Saturday, 9 am to 9 pm.

Call +91 98710 27648

General information about the law, not advice on your case. See the Bar Council disclaimer.