‘Hindu marriage no longer an indissoluble sacrament but a contractual agreement’: Andhra Pradesh HC waives 6-month waiting period for couple seeking mutual divorce

Andhra Pradesh High Court has dissolved a marriage of over five decades between an elderly couple who had been living separately for 49 years, waiving the mandatory six-month cooling off period under the Hindu Marriage Act and observing that Hindu marriage has shifted from being an indissoluble sacrament to a contractual agreement.

The ruling was pronounced on 13 August 2026 by a division bench of Justice Battu Devanand and Justice Sunitha Gandham at the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in Amaravati.

Is the 6-month cooling off period for mutual divorce mandatory?


At the heart of the case was Section 13-B(2) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, which requires couples seeking divorce by mutual consent to wait six months between filing their first and second motions before a court can grant the decree. The provision is commonly referred to as the cooling off period and is intended to prevent hasty or unconsidered decisions.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court held that this provision is directory in nature and not mandatory, meaning courts have the discretion to waive it in appropriate circumstances. The bench relied on a Supreme Court constitution bench ruling in Shilpa Sailesh versus Varun Sreenivasan, reported in (2023) 14 SCC 231, where the apex court held that the cooling off period is not meant to stretch an already disintegrated marriage or to prolong the agony and misery of parties when there are no chances of the marriage working out.

The Supreme Court in that case had held that the waiver is not to be given on mere asking, but on the court being satisfied beyond doubt that the marriage has shattered beyond repair.

Hindu marriage as a contractual agreement, not a sacrament

The Andhra Pradesh High Court went further than merely applying procedural flexibility. It observed that the legislature, through the Hindu Marriage Act, intended to provide a mechanism for the easy dissolution of Hindu marriages by mutual consent, marking a shift from viewing marriage as an indissoluble sacrament to a contractual agreement.

This observation places the ruling within a broader judicial acknowledgement that the legal character of Hindu marriage has evolved significantly since codification, and that courts must align their interpretation of matrimonial law with contemporary social realities rather than treating marriage as an arrangement that must be preserved regardless of the circumstances of the parties.

What happened in this case?

The couple were married on 4 June 1972 in accordance with Hindu rites and caste customs. They have no children. They have been living separately since 1 September 1978, a period of 49 years at the time the High Court took up the matter.

The husband, now 77 years old and a retired employee, had originally filed a petition before the Family Court in Nellore seeking dissolution of the marriage on grounds of cruelty and desertion under Section 13(1)(ia) and (ib) of the Hindu Marriage Act. The Family Court allowed the petition in June 2024. The wife, now 72 years old, challenged that order before the High Court.

During the pendency of the appeal, both parties reached a settlement. The wife filed an application seeking to convert the proceedings from a contested divorce petition to a mutual consent divorce under Section 13-B of the Act. Both parties filed a joint compromise memo before the High Court agreeing to dissolve the marriage and setting out terms including the husband paying monthly maintenance of Rs 20,000 and both sides withdrawing their respective pending criminal cases against each other.

Can courts waive the cooling off period in mutual divorce cases?

The High Court recorded that it made efforts to advise both parties to continue their matrimonial relationship but that given the long duration of desertion and the nature of their estrangement, neither party showed any interest in reconciliation and there were no chances of reunion.

Applying the Supreme Court's ruling in Shilpa Sailesh, the bench held that insisting on the six-month waiting period in these facts would serve no purpose. It allowed the application filed by the wife, accepted the joint compromise memo and the seven terms and conditions agreed to by both parties, and formally dissolved the marriage solemnised in 1972.

The earlier order of the Family Court in Nellore dated 3 June 2024 was set aside, and the High Court passed a fresh decree of divorce by mutual consent. No order as to costs was made.

Check the case judgement here: