Court can waive minimum waiting period for divorce under mutual consent if marriage is irretrievably broken.

ORDER

Leave granted. The present appeal arises out of a matrimonial dispute between the appellant and the respondent. The parties, however, have come to a settlement and the terms of the settlement includes payment of permanent alimony of Rupees Seventy lakhs by the respondent to the appellant. A demand draft bearing no.893239 dated 21.09.2023 drawn on State Bank of India, B.S.F.Campus (Jalandhar) Branch, Punjab in favour of the appellant - Sukhjeet Kaur, has been handed over to the learned advocate for the appellant in presence of the appellant herself who has appeared in person before this Court. The parties want to dissolve their marriage by mutual consent on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of their marriage. A deed of Settlement has been executed by the parties on 25^th August, 2023, which is Annexure Digitally signed by NIRMALA NEGI Date: 2023.10.03 17:32:03 IST Reason:

Signature Not Verified ”A-1” to the IA No.172739/2023. The present appeal, however, arises out of a petition for divorce filed by the respondent-husband before the Additional District Judge, Panipat. The said petition was dismissed by the First Court, but in appeal by the husband, the High Court set aside the judgment and decree of the First Court and decree of divorce was granted on the ground of cruelty. The High Court had also directed payment of Rupees Thirty lakhs as permanent alimony. They have filed an application registered as IA No.172739/2023 for appropriate directions, in substance to give effect to the terms of settlement, which forms part of the aforesaid Interlocutory Application. Their depositions have been recorded by the Registrar (Judicial) of this Court. Learned counsel for the parties submit that they are living separately for more than 12 years. In such circumstances, in exercise of our jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution of India, we waive the period of minimum six months stipulated under Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 which is required to be counted from the date of presentation of the petition for dissolution of marriage on the ground of irretrievable breakdown before passing decree under the aforesaid provision. We are satisfied that the marriage between the parties have broken down irretrievably and there is no possibility of any conciliation or settlement to preserve the marriage between the parties. We, accordingly, set aside the judgment and decree passed by the High Court and pass a decree for dissolution of marriage between the appellant - Sukhjeet Kaur and the respondent - Charanjit Singh Sandhu in terms of Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. The petition of the husband registered as HMA NO. 128 of 2013 filed in the Court of the Additional District Judge, Panipat shall stand dismissed as a consequence. There are several proceedings pending between or involving the parties, particulars of which appears from clause v(a), v(b) and v(c) of the terms of settlement executed by them on 25.08.2023, which we reproduce below. We do not think any purpose would be served by retaining those proceedings. We, accordingly, direct that the proceedings, particulars of which have been disclosed by the parties in their terms of settlement are quashed:- “a. 'CRM-A-778-MA-2016 (titled as 'Sukhjeet Kaur v. Kashmir Singh Sandhu' ) filed by the Petitioner against the order dated 28.1.2016 passed in Crl. Complaint Case No. 77 of 2012, b. Criminal Complaint No. 17/2012 under the Domestic Violence Act 'Sukhjeet Kaur versus Major Charanjit Singh Sandhu and Others' filed in the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class Gurgaon which was partly allowed on 09.01.2017 against which the second party has filed 'CRR-725/2022' which is pending.

c. Ex. No. 23 of 2022 filed by the Petitioner for seeking execution of the order dated 9.1.2017 passed in Crl. Ct. No. 17 of 201