Kerala High Court on Thursday declared as “unconstitutional” section 10-A of the Indian Divorce Act, applicable only to Christian marriages, that stipulates two years separation of spouses before filing application seeking divorce by mutual consent.
A division bench comprising Justice R. Basant and Justice M.C. HariRani held the provision as “discriminatory” and “violative” of Article 14 of the Constitution, which grants equality before law.
The bench upheld the contention of the petitioners that Christians governed by the Indian Divorce Act alone are discriminated while for Hindus and Parsis the time limit fixed is one year.
Christian couples alone have to wait for two years to approach court, it was submitted in a batch of petitions.
In the Special Marriage Act also the stipulated time is one year.
