Special Marriage Act — Divorce Within One Year of Marriage · 29 May 2026
Shahbaz Khan v. Komal Shresth: Delhi High Court Waives Special Marriage Act One-Year Bar for a Marriage Existing Only on Paper
High Court of Delhi · 2026 LiveLaw (Del) 553; 2026:DHC:4767-DB; MAT.APP.(F.C.) 60/2026
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A couple of different faiths married under the Special Marriage Act on 25 August 2025. According to the parties, when the marriage was disclosed it caused severe familial consequences: the husband's father collapsed from shock and was diagnosed with liver failure, and the wife, fearing similar repercussions, concealed the marriage from her own family. The parties never lived together. The husband applied for leave under the proviso to Section 29 to present a divorce petition before one year had passed, and for waiver of the cooling-off period. The Family Court refused, holding that no exceptional hardship was shown and that the parties had not tried to save the marriage.
A Division Bench of Justice Vivek Chaudhary and Justice Renu Bhatnagar set that order aside. It held that the timelines in Sections 28 and 29 protect the institution of marriage but also give courts discretion to relax them. On the admitted position that the marriage was purely notional, with no cohabitation, consummation, child, or social and familial recognition, and that both parties wanted dissolution, it found exceptional hardship and held that insisting on the wait would only prolong their hardship. The Family Court was directed to entertain the mutual consent divorce petition without insisting on the one-year period.
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