Contested divorce and the grounds under Section 13

Each statutory ground and what a court accepts as proof of it, the trial sequence stage by stage with honest durations, the applications that run alongside — and why most of these matters end in a settlement anyway.

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The grounds under Section 13(1), and what each one needs

Every ground pleaded has to be proved, and pleading one you cannot prove weakens the ones you can. Read the caution column as carefully as the evidence column.

The grounds under Section 13(1), and what each one needs
Point of comparison	What must be establishedThe ingredients of the ground	Illustrative evidenceWhat is normally led	Important cautionWhere these cases fail
Adultery — s. 13(1)(i)	Voluntary sexual intercourse, after the marriage, with someone other than the spouse. A single act suffices; a continuing relationship is not required.	Circumstantial evidence of opportunity and inclination — travel and hotel records, photographs, admissions in messages, the birth of a child conceived while the parties lived apart.	Direct evidence is almost never available and is not required. The alleged adulterer is normally impleaded as a co-respondent, which has consequences of its own.
Cruelty — s. 13(1)(ia)	Physical or mental cruelty grave enough that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent. The ordinary wear and tear of married life is not cruelty.	Dated incidents with particulars; medical records and injury reports; contemporaneous messages and e-mails; complaints made at the time; witnesses who saw or heard.	The commonest failure is pleading a conclusion instead of particulars. Also: serious allegations that are made and not proved have themselves been held to amount to cruelty against the person accused.
Desertion — s. 13(1)(ib)	Three things together for a continuous two years immediately before the petition: the fact of separation, the intention to desert permanently, and the absence of the petitioner’s consent or of reasonable cause.	The date of leaving, proved by anything contemporaneous; letters, notices and messages asking the spouse to return; evidence that the two years were continuous.	Living apart is not desertion. A spouse who left because of the other’s conduct is not deserting, and a separation the petitioner agreed to is not desertion either.
Conversion — s. 13(1)(ii)	That the respondent has ceased to be a Hindu by conversion to another religion.	The document or ceremony of conversion, a certificate from the religious body, a change of name recorded on that basis, or an admission.	Professing interest in another faith, or attending its worship, is not conversion. There must be an actual change of religion.
Mental disorder — s. 13(1)(iii)	Incurable unsoundness of mind, or mental disorder of such a kind and to such an extent that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent.	Expert psychiatric evidence, hospital records and treatment history.	The bar is high and it is not met by a diagnosis alone. The statute requires a degree of disorder that makes cohabitation unreasonable.
Venereal disease — s. 13(1)(v)	That the respondent has been suffering from a venereal disease in a communicable form.	Medical reports and evidence from the treating doctor.	Leprosy was removed as a ground by the Personal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019. Any page still listing clause (iv) as a live ground has not been updated.
Renunciation — s. 13(1)(vi)	That the respondent has renounced the world by entering a religious order. Both elements are needed.	Evidence of the ceremony, the order’s own records, and evidence that worldly life has in fact been given up.	A period of religious retreat or study is not renunciation. Formal entry into an order is required.
Presumption of death — s. 13(1)(vii)	That the respondent has not been heard of as being alive for seven years or more by those who would naturally have heard of them.	Evidence from family and others who would ordinarily have heard; a police missing-person report; proof of enquiries actually made.	The court is being asked to presume death, so it looks for a genuine search rather than a bare assertion of absence.

What must be established

The ingredients of the ground

Adultery — s. 13(1)(i): Voluntary sexual intercourse, after the marriage, with someone other than the spouse. A single act suffices; a continuing relationship is not required.
Cruelty — s. 13(1)(ia): Physical or mental cruelty grave enough that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent. The ordinary wear and tear of married life is not cruelty.
Desertion — s. 13(1)(ib): Three things together for a continuous two years immediately before the petition: the fact of separation, the intention to desert permanently, and the absence of the petitioner’s consent or of reasonable cause.
Conversion — s. 13(1)(ii): That the respondent has ceased to be a Hindu by conversion to another religion.
Mental disorder — s. 13(1)(iii): Incurable unsoundness of mind, or mental disorder of such a kind and to such an extent that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent.
Venereal disease — s. 13(1)(v): That the respondent has been suffering from a venereal disease in a communicable form.
Renunciation — s. 13(1)(vi): That the respondent has renounced the world by entering a religious order. Both elements are needed.
Presumption of death — s. 13(1)(vii): That the respondent has not been heard of as being alive for seven years or more by those who would naturally have heard of them.

Illustrative evidence

What is normally led

Adultery — s. 13(1)(i): Circumstantial evidence of opportunity and inclination — travel and hotel records, photographs, admissions in messages, the birth of a child conceived while the parties lived apart.
Cruelty — s. 13(1)(ia): Dated incidents with particulars; medical records and injury reports; contemporaneous messages and e-mails; complaints made at the time; witnesses who saw or heard.
Desertion — s. 13(1)(ib): The date of leaving, proved by anything contemporaneous; letters, notices and messages asking the spouse to return; evidence that the two years were continuous.
Conversion — s. 13(1)(ii): The document or ceremony of conversion, a certificate from the religious body, a change of name recorded on that basis, or an admission.
Mental disorder — s. 13(1)(iii): Expert psychiatric evidence, hospital records and treatment history.
Venereal disease — s. 13(1)(v): Medical reports and evidence from the treating doctor.
Renunciation — s. 13(1)(vi): Evidence of the ceremony, the order’s own records, and evidence that worldly life has in fact been given up.
Presumption of death — s. 13(1)(vii): Evidence from family and others who would ordinarily have heard; a police missing-person report; proof of enquiries actually made.

Important caution

Where these cases fail

Adultery — s. 13(1)(i): Direct evidence is almost never available and is not required. The alleged adulterer is normally impleaded as a co-respondent, which has consequences of its own.
Cruelty — s. 13(1)(ia): The commonest failure is pleading a conclusion instead of particulars. Also: serious allegations that are made and not proved have themselves been held to amount to cruelty against the person accused.
Desertion — s. 13(1)(ib): Living apart is not desertion. A spouse who left because of the other’s conduct is not deserting, and a separation the petitioner agreed to is not desertion either.
Conversion — s. 13(1)(ii): Professing interest in another faith, or attending its worship, is not conversion. There must be an actual change of religion.
Mental disorder — s. 13(1)(iii): The bar is high and it is not met by a diagnosis alone. The statute requires a degree of disorder that makes cohabitation unreasonable.
Venereal disease — s. 13(1)(v): Leprosy was removed as a ground by the Personal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019. Any page still listing clause (iv) as a live ground has not been updated.
Renunciation — s. 13(1)(vi): A period of religious retreat or study is not renunciation. Formal entry into an order is required.
Presumption of death — s. 13(1)(vii): The court is being asked to presume death, so it looks for a genuine search rather than a bare assertion of absence.

Section 13(1A) adds two further grounds where a decree of judicial separation or of restitution of conjugal rights has gone uncomplied with for a year. Section 13(2) gives the wife four grounds of her own. Both sets are set out in full further down this page.

Adultery is still a ground for divorce, even though it is no longer a crime.

A Constitution Bench struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code as unconstitutional, decriminalising adultery. The Court was explicit that it was not approving adultery, and that it remains available as a civil wrong and as a ground for dissolution of marriage. So a petition under Section 13(1)(i) is unaffected; what is gone is the criminal prosecution that used to run beside it.

SourceHindu Marriage Act, 1955 — s. 13Joseph Shine v. Union of India, (2019) 3 SCC 39

Which marriages this page covers

This page covers marriages solemnised under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. Section 2 of that Act applies it to Hindus in any form or development of the religion — including Virashaiva, Lingayat, Brahmo, Prarthana and Arya Samaj followers — and to Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs, as well as to anyone domiciled in India who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion. If your marriage was solemnised or registered under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, or under Muslim, Christian or Parsi personal law, a different statute governs it and the sections on this page do not apply to you.

Quick answer

A contested divorce is filed by one spouse alone and must be founded on a ground the statute gives. Section 13(1) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 lists adultery, cruelty, desertion for two years or more, conversion, mental disorder, communicable venereal disease, renunciation of the world and seven years’ unexplained absence. Section 13(1A) adds two grounds available after a decree of judicial separation or restitution, and Section 13(2) gives the wife four further grounds. Every one of them has to be proved by evidence that survives cross-examination, which is why these matters commonly run three to five years.

Key takeaways

There is no ground of incompatibility. A Family Court cannot dissolve a marriage merely because it has broken down — that power belongs to the Supreme Court alone, under Article 142.
Cruelty is the ground most petitions are founded on and the one least often proved, because petitions plead conclusions instead of dated, particularised incidents.
Adultery is still a ground for divorce. Joseph Shine v. Union of India struck down Section 497 of the Penal Code in 2018, so it is no longer a crime — the civil ground is untouched.
Interim applications run alongside the petition, not after it. Maintenance, residence, custody and injunctions are decided while the main matter crawls.
The great majority of contested matters end in a settlement, usually converted into a Section 13B petition. A settlement in month six and a settlement in year four look identical on paper.

What happens, in order, in a contested divorce

A contested petition is an ordinary civil trial with a family-law subject. No month counts appear against these stages, because none exist in law — the length of a contested matter is driven by the court's pendency and the number of adjournments, not by any statutory timetable.

Statutory requirement
Statutory aspiration
Practical step

1
Petition filed on a statutory ground
Statutory requirement
The ground must come from Section 13(1), 13(1A) or 13(2), pleaded with particulars — dates, places, incidents — rather than as a conclusion.
2
Registry scrutiny and numbering
Practical step
Objections here are almost always about form: an unaccepted vakalatnama, a defective affidavit, an annexure index that does not match.
3
Notice or summons issued and served
Statutory requirement
Ordinary service first, then registered post. Where the respondent avoids service the court may order substituted service — affixation at the last known address and newspaper publication — which adds time and cost.
4
Written statement, and any counter-claim
Statutory requirement
The respondent answers the petition paragraph by paragraph and may seek relief of their own. A counter-claim survives even if the petitioner later withdraws.
5
Reconciliation and mediation
Statutory requirement
Section 9 of the Family Courts Act, 1984 obliges the court to make an effort at settlement. Most Family Courts refer the matter to a mediation centre at this point.
6
Interim applications, running alongside
Practical step
Maintenance under Section 24, residence and protection under the Domestic Violence Act, custody under Section 26, and injunctions restraining disposal of property. These are decided while the main petition is still pending — they do not wait for it.
The maintenance applications in detail →
7
Framing of issues
Statutory requirement
The court reduces the whole dispute to a list of specific questions, and tells each side what it has to prove. This is the point at which you learn exactly what your case requires.
8
Petitioner’s evidence, then cross-examination
Statutory requirement
An affidavit of evidence for the petitioner and each witness, followed by cross-examination by the other side. Each witness is usually spread over several dates.
9
Respondent’s evidence, then cross-examination
Statutory requirement
The same again in the other direction. This stage and the one before it are where the bulk of a contested matter’s life is spent.
10
Final arguments
Statutory requirement
Oral submissions, and written submissions where the court asks for them.
11
Judgment and decree
Statutory requirement
The court decides each framed issue and passes a decree. The marriage is dissolved from that date.
12
Appeal to the High Court
Statutory requirement
Within thirty days of the decree
Under Section 28 of the Hindu Marriage Act, or Section 19 of the Family Courts Act, 1984 where the decree was passed by a Family Court. Section 15 bars remarriage until that window closes.

Where a statute expresses a period as an endeavour rather than a limit — for example the sixty days in Section 12(5) of the Domestic Violence Act — that is a statutory aspiration, not a guaranteed completion time, and it is labelled as such wherever it appears on this site.

Where can the petition be filed?

Section 19 gives a closed list. You must fit within one of these limbs — filing in the wrong court costs months, and it is the first thing the registry checks.

Which of these is true of your matter?

The petition goes to the district court — in practice the Family Court, where one has been established — within whose ordinary original civil jurisdiction the limb applies.

Limb 1
Where the marriage was solemnised
The place the ceremonies were actually performed.
Limb 2
Where the respondent resides when the petition is presented
Their residence on the filing date, not a former or nominal address.
Limb 3
Where the parties last resided together
The last matrimonial home, whether owned, rented or family accommodation.
Limb 4 — wife as petitioner
Where the wife is residing on the date she presents the petition
Inserted by the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act, 1976, so that a wife who has returned to her parents is not forced to litigate in her husband’s city. Available only where she is the petitioner.
Limb 5 — respondent abroad or missing
Where the petitioner resides
Available where the respondent is residing outside the territories to which the Act extends, or has not been heard of as being alive for seven years or more by those who would naturally have heard of them.

Where a matter is already filed in an inconvenient court, the remedy is a transfer petition — under Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure within a State, and before the Supreme Court between States. Transfer petitions are, in practice, also where a great many matrimonial matters end up settling.

The grounds under Section 13(1), and what actually proves each one

Section 13(1) is available to either spouse. Each clause is a separate ground with its own ingredients, and a petition can plead more than one — but every ground pleaded has to be proved, and pleading a ground you cannot prove damages the ones you can.

The recurring failure in Indian matrimonial pleadings is the conclusion. "The Respondent subjected the Petitioner to mental cruelty" is a conclusion. It gives the court nothing to frame an issue on and gives the other side nothing to answer. What is needed is particulars: what was said or done, on what date, at what place, in whose presence, and what followed.

Section 13(1): the eight grounds, their ingredients and the proof courts accept

Clause and ground	What has to be established	What is normally led as proof
13(1)(i) — Adultery	That the respondent has, after the solemnisation of the marriage, had voluntary sexual intercourse with a person other than the spouse. A single act suffices; it does not have to be a continuing relationship.	Direct evidence is almost never available and is not required. Courts act on circumstantial evidence — proof of opportunity and inclination, hotel and travel records, photographs, admissions in messages, the birth of a child conceived when the parties were living apart. The alleged adulterer is normally impleaded as a co-respondent.
13(1)(ia) — Cruelty	That the respondent has, after the marriage, treated the petitioner with cruelty. Physical or mental. The conduct must be grave enough that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent — ordinary wear and tear of married life is not cruelty.	Dated incidents with particulars. Medical records and injury reports. Messages, e-mails and call recordings where lawfully obtained. Police complaints and their outcomes. Witnesses who saw or heard. Evidence of persistent false allegations, denial of access to a child, or unexplained desertion of the matrimonial obligations.
13(1)(ib) — Desertion	Desertion for a continuous period of not less than two years immediately preceding the presentation of the petition. Three ingredients: the fact of separation, the intention to desert permanently, and the absence of the petitioner’s consent or of reasonable cause.	The date of leaving, proved by anything contemporaneous. Evidence of attempts to bring the spouse back — letters, notices, messages, family intervention — because desertion fails if the petitioner acquiesced. Proof that the two years were continuous and immediately preceded the filing.
13(1)(ii) — Conversion	That the respondent has ceased to be a Hindu by conversion to another religion. Merely professing another faith, or an interest in it, is not enough; there must be a conversion.	The document or ceremony of conversion, a certificate from the religious body, a change of name recorded on that basis, or an admission.
13(1)(iii) — Unsoundness of mind or mental disorder	That the respondent has been incurably of unsound mind, or has suffered continuously or intermittently from mental disorder of such a kind and to such an extent that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with them.	Expert psychiatric evidence, hospital records and treatment history. The bar is high: the statute requires a degree of disorder that makes cohabitation unreasonable, not a diagnosis on its own.
13(1)(v) — Venereal disease	That the respondent has been suffering from a venereal disease in a communicable form.	Medical reports and treating-doctor evidence. Note that clause (iv), leprosy, was removed as a ground by the Personal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019, and is no longer available.
13(1)(vi) — Renunciation of the world	That the respondent has renounced the world by entering a religious order. Both elements are needed — renunciation and formal entry into an order.	Evidence of the ceremony, the order’s records, and evidence that the respondent has in fact given up worldly life.
13(1)(vii) — Presumption of death	That the respondent has not been heard of as being alive for seven years or more by those persons who would naturally have heard of them, had they been alive.	Evidence from the family and others who would ordinarily have heard. A police missing-person report. Proof of enquiries actually made. The court is being asked to presume death, so it looks for genuine search, not a bare assertion.

Clause (iv) — leprosy — was omitted by the Personal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019, which removed it as a ground for divorce from five personal laws. Any page still listing it as a live ground has not been updated.

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Adultery is a ground for divorce, but no longer a crime

In Joseph Shine v. Union of India, (2019) 3 SCC 39, a Constitution Bench struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code as unconstitutional, decriminalising adultery. The Court was explicit that it was not approving adultery, and that it remains available as a civil wrong and as a ground for dissolution of marriage. So an adultery petition under Section 13(1)(i) is unaffected; what is gone is the criminal prosecution that used to run beside it.

Cruelty in practice: the ground most petitions use and least often prove

Section 13(1)(ia) does not define cruelty, and that is deliberate. It covers physical violence, and it covers mental cruelty — conduct that causes such mental pain and suffering that it becomes impossible for the parties to live together. Indian courts have developed the ground case by case rather than by definition, and the practical test they apply is whether, taking the conduct as a whole and in the context of this particular marriage, the petitioner can reasonably be expected to continue living with the respondent.

Because there is no definition, the whole case turns on particulars. A petition that lists eleven dated incidents with places and witnesses is a case. A petition that says the respondent was "abusive, insulting and mentally torturous throughout" is not, however true it may be. That asymmetry is unfair to people who genuinely lived through it, and there is no way round it: courts decide on evidence, and evidence needs something specific to attach to.

One thing worth knowing before you plead cruelty in either direction. Levelling serious allegations that are later found to be false has itself been held to amount to cruelty against the person accused. A pleading is not a free space, and an allegation of a criminal offence made and not proved can come back as a ground in the counter-claim.

Build a chronology before you draft. Date, place, what happened, who was present, what document or message exists for it. Anything you cannot support with a date or a witness should be pleaded honestly as an approximation, not sharpened.
Contemporaneous material carries far more weight than recollection: a message sent that evening, a medical record from that week, a complaint made at the time. Reconstructed evidence reads as reconstructed.
Recordings are frequently relied on and frequently fought over — on authenticity, on whether the recording is complete, and on how it was obtained. Preserve the original device and file, not just an exported clip.
Denial of access to a child, persistent public humiliation, unilateral withdrawal from the marriage without cause, and sustained financial deprivation are all recognised species of mental cruelty in Indian decisions.
A single incident can be enough if it is grave enough. A pattern is more usual, and a pattern needs to be shown as a pattern — dates spread over time, not a lump.

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Where cruelty and criminal proceedings meet

Cruelty by a husband or his relatives is also a criminal offence — Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, now Sections 85 and 86 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, since 1 July 2024. The offence is cognizable and non-bailable. Filing or defending such a case alongside a divorce changes the dynamics of both, and it is not a decision to take casually in either direction. That is a separate subject and is not covered on this page.

Section 13(1A) and Section 13(2): the additional grounds

Two further sets of grounds sit alongside Section 13(1). Section 13(1A) is available to either party and turns on the failure of an earlier decree. Section 13(2) is available only to the wife.

The grounds beyond Section 13(1)

Provision	Ground	Notes
13(1A)(i)	No resumption of cohabitation for one year or more after a decree of judicial separation.	Available to either party, including the party against whom the judicial separation was passed. It converts a separation into a divorce after a year of nothing changing.
13(1A)(ii)	No restitution of conjugal rights for one year or more after a decree for restitution.	A decree that goes uncomplied with for a year becomes a ground. This is why restitution petitions are sometimes filed tactically — and why a court will look closely at whether the petitioner is taking advantage of their own wrong, which Section 23(1)(a) requires it to consider.
13(2)(i)	For marriages solemnised before the Act came into force: that the husband had married again before commencement, or that another wife married before commencement was alive at the time of this marriage.	Historical, and now rare. The other wife must be alive at the time the petition is presented.
13(2)(ii)	That the husband has, since the marriage, been guilty of rape, sodomy or bestiality.	Available to the wife alone.
13(2)(iii)	That a maintenance order has been passed against the husband — in a suit under Section 18 of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, or in proceedings under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (now Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023) — and that cohabitation has not been resumed for one year or more since.	A maintenance order plus a year of no cohabitation becomes a standalone divorce ground for the wife. It is under-used.
13(2)(iv)	That her marriage was solemnised before she attained fifteen, and she repudiated it after fifteen but before eighteen.	The option of puberty. It applies whether or not the marriage was consummated.

The litigation sequence, stage by stage, with honest durations

A contested divorce is a civil trial. What follows is the sequence in order, with the duration each stage commonly takes. These are observed ranges from ordinary Family Court practice, not statutory periods — the only genuinely fixed number in the whole sequence is the thirty days for an appeal.

1Filing and scrutiny. The petition is filed, the registry checks it for form, objections are removed and the matter is numbered.
2Notice or summons to the respondent. Ordinary service first, then registered post, then — where the respondent avoids service — substituted service by affixation and newspaper publication, which is where matters lose months.
3Appearance and written statement. The respondent enters appearance and files a written statement answering the petition paragraph by paragraph, often with a counter-claim of their own.
4Replication, where the court permits one, answering new matter raised in the written statement.
5Reconciliation and mediation. Section 9 of the Family Courts Act, 1984 requires the court to make an effort at settlement, and most Family Courts refer the matter to a mediation centre at this point.
6Framing of issues. The court reduces the whole dispute to a list of specific questions — did the respondent treat the petitioner with cruelty; has there been desertion for two years — and each side is told what it has to prove.
7Petitioner’s evidence: an affidavit of evidence for the petitioner and each witness, followed by cross-examination of each of them by the other side.
8Respondent’s evidence, led and cross-examined the same way. This stage and the previous one are where the years go, largely because each cross-examination is spread over multiple dates.
9Final arguments, and written submissions where the court asks for them.
10Judgment and decree.
11Appeal to the High Court within thirty days — under Section 28 of the Hindu Marriage Act, or Section 19 of the Family Courts Act, 1984 where the decree was passed by a Family Court.

Where the years go in a contested petition — cumulative months from filing

Filing, scrutiny and numbering

Days to a month

Service of notice on the respondent

1–6 months; longer if service is evaded

Written statement, and replication

2–6 months after appearance

Mediation reference

2–4 months, running in parallel

Framing of issues

Typically 1–3 months once pleadings close

Petitioner’s evidence and cross-examination

12–18 months is common

Respondent’s evidence and cross-examination

A further 12–18 months

Final arguments and judgment

6–12 months

01224364860

Observed practice in Indian Family Courts, gathered from how these matters actually run rather than from any published timetable. Bands overlap because stages overlap. What moves them most is not the complexity of the marriage but the court’s pendency and the frequency of adjournments — which is exactly why the settlement route is worth revisiting at every stage.

The applications that run alongside the petition

The divorce petition is the slowest thing in the file and rarely the most urgent. Money, a roof and access to children are decided by separate applications that are heard while the main matter is pending, and in a well-run matter those are filed at the outset rather than months later.

Interim relief available while a contested petition is pending

Application	Provision	What it gets you	Typical timeline
Interim maintenance and litigation expenses	Section 24, Hindu Marriage Act, 1955	A monthly sum during the proceedings, plus the expenses of the proceeding itself, to a spouse with no independent income sufficient for support. Available to either spouse.	A few months, though it depends heavily on how fast both affidavits of disclosure are filed.
Maintenance independent of the divorce	Section 125 CrPC — now Section 144, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023	A monthly allowance for a wife, child or parent unable to maintain themselves. Runs in the Magistrate’s Court and does not depend on any divorce petition existing.	Generally the fastest of the three routes.
Monetary relief, residence and protection	Sections 18 to 22, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005	Protection orders, a residence order in the shared household, monetary relief and compensation. Section 23 allows interim and ex parte orders.	Section 12(5) directs the Magistrate to endeavour to dispose of the application within sixty days of the first hearing.
Custody and access pending the suit	Section 26, Hindu Marriage Act, 1955	Interim orders about custody, maintenance and education of minor children. The court may make, revoke, suspend or vary them at any time.	Usually the first thing a Family Court will take up, because the child’s welfare governs.
Injunction restraining disposal of property	Order XXXIX, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908	Restrains a party from selling or encumbering a property pending the outcome — used where the matrimonial home or a jointly funded asset is at risk.	Heard urgently if a genuine threat of alienation is shown.
Transfer of the case	Section 24 CPC (within a State); Article 139A / Section 25 CPC (between States)	Moves the matter to a court closer to the applicant. Frequently used where a wife has returned to her parents’ city.	Months. A transfer petition before the Supreme Court is also, in practice, where many matters end up settling.

The affidavit of assets and liabilities directed in Rajnesh v. Neha has to be filed by both parties in every one of the maintenance routes above, and maintenance is awarded from the date of the application, not the date of the order.

Why most contested matters end in a settlement anyway

It is worth confronting this on day one rather than in year three. The overwhelming majority of contested matrimonial petitions in India do not end in a judgment on the merits. They end in a settlement, which is very often then converted into a joint petition under Section 13B so that the parties get a consent decree rather than a contested one.

The reasons are structural rather than personal. Evidence takes years, and both parties are paying for every date. Each side discovers during cross-examination that its own case has weaknesses it did not see. Interim orders — particularly a maintenance order — change the economics and often the appetite. And the relief a court can give is narrower than what a settlement can arrange: a court cannot order a bank to release a co-borrower, cannot transfer title, and cannot fashion an access schedule that both parents have actually agreed to.

None of that means you should settle on bad terms. It means the question worth asking at each stage is not "will I win" but "what is the best outcome available to me here, and how much will three more years cost to find out". A settlement reached at the framing-of-issues stage and a settlement reached after judgment produce the same decree. Only one of them costs three years.

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The point to reassess

After the interim maintenance order and after the framing of issues. By that point you know what the court thinks the money looks like, and you know exactly what you will have to prove. Those are the two facts that were missing when you filed, and they are the two that should drive the decision whether to fight or to convert to a Section 13B petition.

Official sources checked

The statutes, rules and regulator pages the statements on this page were checked against.

The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
Sections 13(1), 13(1A), 13(2), 23(1)(a), 24, 26 and 28 were read in the bare Act.
The Personal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019
Omitted leprosy as a ground for divorce from the Hindu Marriage Act and four other personal laws.
Joseph Shine v. Union of India, (2019) 3 SCC 39
Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code struck down; adultery decriminalised but preserved as a civil wrong and a ground for divorce.
Shilpa Sailesh v. Varun Sreenivasan, (2023) 4 SCC 692
Irretrievable breakdown is available only to the Supreme Court, under Article 142.
Rajnesh v. Neha, (2021) 2 SCC 324
The affidavit of disclosure is mandatory in all maintenance proceedings; maintenance is awarded from the date of the application.
The Family Courts Act, 1984
Sections 9 (efforts at settlement) and 19 (appeal within thirty days).
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
Sections 85 and 86 replaced Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code with effect from 1 July 2024.

You are here

Understanding contested divorce

What to do next

1
Check what evidence you actually have for the ground you are pleading
A court cannot frame an issue on a conclusion. Dates, places, witnesses and contemporaneous documents are what a ground is proved with.
The evidence and document checklist →
2
File the maintenance application now, not later
It is decided while the main petition crawls, and maintenance runs from the date you apply rather than the date of the order.
The three maintenance routes →
3
Work out the property and stridhan position early
A decree divides nothing. Where a property may be sold mid-case, an injunction is the remedy — and it has to be sought early.
Property, stridhan and residence rights →
4
Reassess settlement after the interim order and the framing of issues
By then you know what the court thinks the money looks like and exactly what you would have to prove. Most contested matters end in settlement anyway.
Converting to a mutual consent petition →

Legal review

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Content last checked against the cited statutes and judgments: September 2026. This date is maintained by hand and does not change on a redeploy. GetNyay is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal representation. The formats and estimates here are general information. Have any draft reviewed by an advocate enrolled with a State Bar Council before you file it or send it.

Contested divorce and the grounds under Section 13

The grounds under Section 13(1), and what each one needs

What must be established

Illustrative evidence

Important caution

Key takeaways

What happens, in order, in a contested divorce

Petition filed on a statutory ground

Registry scrutiny and numbering

Notice or summons issued and served

Written statement, and any counter-claim

Reconciliation and mediation

Interim applications, running alongside

Framing of issues

Petitioner’s evidence, then cross-examination

Respondent’s evidence, then cross-examination

Final arguments

Judgment and decree

Appeal to the High Court