SMRUTI PAHARIYA Vs. SANJAY PAHARIYA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The wife, who is the appellant before this Court, filed this appeal seeking to impugn the judgment and order dated 5.6.2008 passed by the High Court of judicature at Bombay, which in a detailed judgment, was pleased to set aside the judgment and decree dated 5.12.2007 passed by the Family Court, Mumbai, in which the Family Court, dissolved the marriage between the appellant and the respondent by a decree of divorce on mutual consent under Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (hereinafter "the said Act").

(3.) Admittedly, the parties are Hindu and governed by the provisions of the said Act and they were married on 5.3.1993 at Mumbai following the Hindu Vedic rites. Marriage was also registered. After marriage, the parties resided together in Flat No. 601, 2nd Floor, Dinath Court, Sir Pochkhanwala Road, Worli, Mumbai. Two sons were born to them, one on 1.2.1995 and the other one on 3.4.1997. A few years after that, serious differences and incompatibility surfaced between them and all attempts of settlement failed. The parties stopped living together from January 2005 and decided to file a petition seeking divorce by mutual consent under Section 13B of the said Act. A joint petition to that effect was filed before the Family Court at Bandra, Mumbai and the same was registered on 19.5.2007. It was averred therein that incompatibility with each other made it difficult for them to co-exist and they stopped cohabiting as husband and wife from January 2005 (para 6). In paragraph 13, it was stated that there was no collusion between the parties in filing the petition for divorce by mutual consent and in paragraph 17 it was pointed out that there is no force or coercion between the parties in filing the petition. Along with the said petition, certain consent terms were also filed but with those terms we are not concerned in this proceeding.