Grounds for Divorce in India | Section 13 Explained
Section 13 · Hindu Marriage Act

Grounds for divorce: what each one actually requires you to prove

A contested divorce needs a statutory ground, and each ground has ingredients that must be established with evidence. This is what the law asks for, ground by ground.

Quick answer

Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act provides grounds including cruelty, desertion, adultery, conversion, mental disorder, renunciation and presumption of death.

Irretrievable breakdown is not a statutory ground, though the Supreme Court has granted relief on that basis using its own constitutional powers.

Cruelty: the ground most cases run on

Cruelty is conduct of such a character that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent. It covers physical violence, but the great majority of pleaded cases concern mental cruelty: sustained humiliation, false allegations, desertion of responsibility, financial deprivation, or persistent conduct that makes the marriage unendurable.

What courts want is specificity. A petition asserting that a spouse was "cruel and harassing" achieves very little. A petition setting out dated incidents, with corroboration where it exists (messages, medical records, complaints made at the time, witnesses) is a different proposition entirely.

The other statutory grounds

Each has distinct ingredients, and pleading the wrong one is a common and costly error.

Desertion. Abandonment without reasonable cause, without consent, with the intention to permanently end cohabitation, for at least two continuous years.Adultery. Voluntary sexual intercourse outside the marriage. Rarely proved directly; courts draw inferences from circumstances.Conversion. The respondent has ceased to be Hindu by conversion to another religion.Mental disorder. Of a kind and degree that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent. Requires medical evidence.Venereal disease. In a communicable form.Renunciation. The respondent has renounced the world by entering a religious order.Presumption of death. Not heard of as alive for seven years by those who would naturally have heard.
Additional grounds available to a wife. Under Section 13(2), including bigamy by the husband, conviction for certain offences against her, and non-resumption of cohabitation after a maintenance order.

Irretrievable breakdown: the ground that is not one

Despite widespread belief, irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not a ground under the Hindu Marriage Act. Law Commission reports have recommended adding it; Parliament has not done so.

The Supreme Court has, however, dissolved marriages on that basis in the exercise of its own powers under Article 142, where the marriage was beyond repair and the parties had been separated for many years. That is a remedy available from the Supreme Court, not something a Family Court can grant: which is why, in practice, long-separated couples are better served by converting to a consent petition than by waiting for a breakdown ground.

FAQs

Grounds for divorce: questions

Can I get a divorce simply because we are unhappy?+

Not through a contested petition: you need a statutory ground. If both spouses agree, mutual consent requires no ground beyond a year of separation and an agreement that the marriage should end.

Is mental cruelty enough on its own?+

Yes. Mental cruelty is a well-established ground and does not require any physical violence. It does require specific, evidenced instances rather than general assertions.

How long must we be separated?+

For desertion, at least two continuous years. For mutual consent, at least one year of living separately. Living separately can include living in the same house without a marital relationship, though that is harder to prove.

More on divorce & family law
How long a divorce takes→ Family Court: what to expect→ Waiving the 6-month wait→ Annulment & separation→ Restitution petitions→ Getting stridhan back→