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Understand Your Rights in Divorce and Maintenance
Explore general matrimonial and maintenance concepts. Applicable personal law, court procedure, and individual facts affect your options.
Prepare your records and choose the next resource
Useful records to organise for Hindu Marriage Act. These prompts are not a mandatory filing checklist.
- Marriage records, applicable marriage law and relevant places of residence.
- A chronology of separation, earlier proceedings and any orders.
- Financial or child-related records relevant to the question; minimise unnecessary sensitive details.
Grounds and process
- Grounds under Section 13 HMA include cruelty, adultery, desertion (2+ years), conversion, mental disorder.
- Mutual consent divorce (Sec. 13B): 1-year separation, 6-18 month cooling-off (waivable).
- Contested divorce is filed in the Family Court where marriage was solemnised or the parties last lived.
Maintenance & custody
- Interim maintenance under Sec. 24 HMA / Sec. 144 BNSS (formerly Sec. 125 CrPC); permanent alimony under Sec. 25 HMA.
- Rajnesh v. Neha addresses financial disclosure and factors for maintenance. It does not prescribe one standard amount for every family; income, needs, liabilities and the applicable law require assessment.
- Child custody decided in the child's best interest; joint custody increasingly recognised.
- Free family court mediation is available in most districts.
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