The couple, accordingly approached a Chhindwara court, invoking provisions of the section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, which allows a couple to take divorce with mutual consent.

After the couple filed their joint lawsuit for divorce, the court asked them to wait for the mandatory 'cooling off period' of six months before taking a final call on their divorce petition.

But the wife did a volte face in court after the cooling off period and withdrew her consent to the divorce. This resulted in the court dismissing the couple's petition.

The husband subsequently approached the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which too dismissed the appeal. It was against this ruling of the high court that Jain had approached the apex court.

In its ruling, the apex court said that in normal circumstances, with the wife withdrawing her consent for the divorce, the husband could have been asked to start the divorce proceedings on a clean slate on the grounds that his wife did not want to live with him.

But the court pointed out that 'living separately being one of the grounds for divorce by mutual consent', the marriage is liable to be dissolved by the apex court itself.

-Indo-Asian News Service

Rax/pg/jg