- (1.) Heard.
(2.) Section 13B in The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (for short, the Act) provides for termination of a connubial bond by mutual consent of the parties to such a relationship. It reads as under: 13-B Divorce by mutual consent.-- (1) Subject to the provisions of this Act a petition for dissolution of marriage by a decree of divorce may be presented to the district court by both the parties to a marriage together, whether such marriage was solemnised before or after the commencement of the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act, 1976 (68 of 1976), on the ground that they have been living separately for a period of one year or more, that they have not been able to live together and that they have mutually agreed that the marriage should be dissolved. (2) On the motion of both the parties made not earlier than six months after the date of the presentation of the petition referred to in sub-section (1) and not later than eighteen months after the said date, if the petition is not withdrawn in the meantime, the court shall, on being satisfied, after hearing the parties and after making such inquiry as it thinks fit, that a marriage has been solemnised and that the averments in the petition are true, pass a decree of divorce declaring the marriage to be dissolved with effect from the date of the decree.
(3.) Can the statutory waiting period of six months referred to in subsection (2) of Section 13B of the Act waived/condoned by the Court?, is the precise question, to seek an answer to which this petition under Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Code, for short) has been brought by the petitioner, because the question has been answered in the negative by the Court of learned Additional District Judge, Panchkula (Trial Court, for short) vide order dated 23.05.2014 passed on an application brought by the present petitioner and her co-petitioner under Section 151 of the Code, which was brought by the parties to seek waiver of the statutory waiting period of six months in a petition for dissolution of marriage of the parties to that petition by mutual consent under Section 13B of the Act on the plea that marriage between the parties did not work owing to temperamental differences. In the application for condonation of period of six months, it was stated that the parties to the petition are quite young, have been living separately from each other for the last more than two years and both of them being well educated and mature have decided to determine the conjugal relationship after due deliberations and a series of mediations. Learned Trial Court dismissed the application vide order dated 23.05.2014 in view of the law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Anil Kumar Jain v. Maya Jain, 2010 AIR(SC) 229 .;