Exceptional circumstances and settlement of disputes can justify the waiver of the statutory period for filing a petition for divorce by mutual consent under the Hindu Marriage Act.

Arvind Kumar, J.

1. The present petition has been filed by the married couple Amit Jain and Taruna Jain jointly. They were married on 12.9.2005.They filed a petition under Section 13-B of the Hindu Marriage Act (for short the Act) by way of mutual consent on the ground that they are living separately since 9.4.2006. The learned District Judge, Chandigarh vide the impugned order dated 13.3.2007 declined to waive off the statutory period of one year and dismissed their petition. Aggrieved with the same, they, through this petition, has sought waiver of mandatory statutory period of one year in moving the petition for divorce by way of mutual consent as contemplated under Section 13(B)(1) of the Act by spelling out the exceptional circumstances and the hardships, with which both the parties are passing through. They have claimed to have settled their all disputes. They have compromised the matter so much so on the basis of which, the criminal case under Sections 498-A/406 I.P.C. had also been quashed by this Court vide order dated 25.8.2006 (Annexure P-1). Looking to there facts particularly that their marriage has become irretrievable due to incompatibility, there exists exceptional circumstance which is sufficient for waiving off the statutory period of one year. A reference can be made to the decisions in Rabindra Nath Mukherjee V/s. I.T.I. Mukherjee @ Chatterje 1992 (1) H.L.R. Calcutta 445 and Vinod Arora V/s. Smt. Manju Arora A.I.R 1982 Delhi 592, wherein it has been held that if there are exceptional circumstances such a period can be waived. A reference has also been made to a decision rendered by this Court in Civil Revision No. 1224 of 2007, titled Shipra Aggarwal V/s. Tarun Gupta decided on March 21, 2007.

2. In view of the foregoing reasons, the petition is allowed. The statutory period of one year is hereby waived off, as no useful purpose will be served nor it will be in the interest of parties that they should wait for another few months. They have already parted and have settled their disputes amicably and nothing survives in the marriage.

3. With the result, the impugned order passed by the District Judge is set aside. The petition under Section 13(B)(1) of the Act stands restored with the direction to the trial court to consider the same without insisting upon the parties to wait for six months after presentation of the petition.

4. The parties through their counsel are directed to appear before the learned District Judge, Chandigarh on 3.5.2007.