The Supreme Court held that the six-month waiting period for mutual-consent divorce under s.13B(2) of the Hindu Marriage Act is directory and may be waived where reconciliation is impossible, the statutory separation is over, and the parties have genuinely settled custody, maintenance and alimony. The waiting period exists to allow second thoughts, not to prolong an agreed parting.
A five-judge Constitution Bench held that the Supreme Court may, under Article 142, dissolve a marriage that has irretrievably broken down to do complete justice — even without one spouse's consent and bypassing the family-court reference — and that the six-month cooling-off period under section 13B(2) of the Hindu Marriage Act is waivable in a fit case.
On 12 May 2026, a two-judge bench expunged findings of cruelty and desertion against a dentist wife who had relocated from Kargil to Ahmedabad for tertiary medical care and to pursue her practice, holding that 'marriage does not eclipse her individuality' and retaining the divorce decree on the ground of irretrievable breakdown under Article 142.