Mutual consent divorce petition
End-to-end mutual consent divorce assistance under Section 13B Hindu Marriage Act or equivalent personal-law provision. Includes both motion drafting and court representation.
A mutual consent divorce is the no-fault dissolution of marriage where both spouses jointly petition the court declaring that they have been living separately for the prescribed period, that they have not been able to live together, and that they have mutually agreed to dissolve the marriage. For residents of Uttarakhand, the governing framework is the Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand, 2024 (Act 1 of 2024), which entered into force on 27 January 2025 and provides uniform divorce grounds and procedure across communities. Section 27 of the Code provides for divorce by mutual consent; Section 28 imposes the standard one-year-from-marriage bar on filing for divorce. For non-residents of Uttarakhand, members of Scheduled Tribes, or members of Part-XXI-Constitution-protected groups, the pre-existing route continues — Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 for Hindus / Buddhists / Sikhs / Jains; Section 28 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954 for civil marriages; or the applicable personal-law route for other communities.
The petition is filed jointly before the Family Court (where one is established) or the District Court (in districts where no Family Court has been notified). The standard process involves a first-motion application (where the court records the parties' consent), a statutory cooling-off period of six months from the first motion (which the Supreme Court has held may be waived in appropriate cases on satisfaction of specific criteria — Amardeep Singh v. Harveen Kaur, 2017), and a second-motion application (where the parties reaffirm their consent and the court grants the decree). The court typically requires a settlement on alimony, maintenance, custody of children, division of jointly-held assets, and return of stridhan / dowry articles to be incorporated in the decree. Once granted, the divorce is registered in the matrimonial records and certified copies of the decree are issued.
In Uttarakhand, mutual consent divorce petitions are filed before the Family Court of the relevant district — Family Courts have been established at Dehradun, Haridwar, and Haldwani (Nainital district), with parallel District Court matrimonial jurisdiction in districts without a notified Family Court (Almora, Pauri, Tehri, Pithoragarh, Bageshwar, Champawat, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi, and others). Where one or both parties reside outside India, the Uttarakhand High Court has confirmed (in <em>Dr. Surjeet v. Dr. Namita</em>, 2022) that representation through a duly-authorised power-of-attorney holder, supported by video conferencing for the absent party, is permissible. Uniform Civil Code-track divorces additionally require post-decree registration of the divorce within 60 days under the UCC Rules, 2025; this is in addition to (not a substitute for) the court decree itself.
NyaySetu Law's mutual consent divorce service drafts the joint petition under the UCC §27 (or under HMA §13B / SMA §28 where the UCC does not apply), prepares the settlement covering alimony, custody, asset division, and stridhan return; identifies the correct Family Court or District Court; and tracks the six-month cooling-off / waiver consideration / second-motion timeline. You file the petition, attend both motions, and complete the post-decree registration where the UCC track applies.