SURESHTA DEVI Vs. OM PRAKASH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Special Leave granted.

(2.) This appeal from a decision of the Himachal Pradesh High Court concerns the validity of a decree of dissolution of marriage by mutual consent, and is said, probably rightly, to raise an important issue. The issue is whether a party to a petition for divorce by mutual consent u/ S. 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 ('Act') can unilaterally withdraw the consent or whether the consent once given is irrevocable.

(3.) The appellant is the wife of the respondent. They were married on 21 November 1968. They lived together for about six to seven months. Thereafter, it is that the wife did not stay with the husband except from 9 December 1984 to 7 January 1985. That was pursuant to an order of the Court, but it seems that they did not live on the ground that they have been living like husband and wife during that period also . On 8 January 1985, both of them came to that they have not been able to live together and Hamirpur. The wife was accompanied by her counsel, Shri Madan Rattan. After about an hour discussion, they moved a petition u/ s. 13-B for divorce by mutual consent in the District Court at Hamirpur. On 9 January 1985, the Court recorded statements of the parties and left the matter there.