Question

Ms. A, a Hindu female and Mr. B, a Christian male, got married as per the law relating to special marriages in January 2018. On January 26, 2021, Ms. A and Mr. B jointly presented a petition for divorce by mutual consent before the district court on the ground that they have been inflicting mental cruelty on each other for a period of three years and that they have mutually agreed that the marriage should be dissolved. In the given situation, which of the following statements is correct?

• A. The district court shall pass a decree of divorce within six months after the presentation of petition for divorce by mutual consent.
• B. The district court shall pass a decree of divorce after eighteen months of the presentation of petition for divorce by mutual consent.
• C. The district court shall not immediately pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent.
• D. The district court shall immediately pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent if it is satisfied that the marriage was valid.
• A. The district court shall pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent six months after the date of presentation of petition for divorce.
• B. The district court shall pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent eighteen months after the date of presentation of petition for divorce.
• C. The district court shall not pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent as the requirements for grant of divorce are not fulfilled.
• D. The district court shall not pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent as Ms. A and Mr. B have not been living separately for more than one year.
• A. The district court shall pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent after all other legal requirements are fulfilled.
• B. The district court shall pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent immediately because Ms. A and Mr. B have been living separately for more than one year.
• C. The district court shall not pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent because the marriage between Ms. A and Mr. B is not valid.
• D. The district court shall not pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent because neither party is at fault in the marriage.
• A. The district court may pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent six months after the date of presentation of petition for divorce.
• B. The district court shall pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent after all other legal requirements are fulfilled.
• C. The district court shall not pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent.
• D. Both (A) and (B).
• A. The district court shall pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent because the legal requirements are fulfilled.
• B. The district court shall pass a decree of divorce because the marriage had been solemnized under the law relating to special marriages.
• C. The district court shall not pass a decree of divorce because there was no mutual consent between parties.
• D. The district court shall not pass a decree of divorce because Ms. A has not been punished for fraud.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

The correct option is (C): The district court shall not immediately pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent.

Answer 2

The passage sets out the procedure for obtaining a divorce by mutual consent under the law relating to special marriages: a joint petition is presented, and the district court may pass a decree only after a minimum waiting period of six months from presentation, and no later than eighteen months, once it has heard the parties, made the necessary inquiry, and is satisfied the claims are true. Here, Ms. A and Mr. B jointly presented their petition on January 26, 2021, citing three years of mutual cruelty and mutual agreement to dissolve the marriage. The question asks what happens next.

1. Option (A): This claims the court shall pass the decree within six months of presentation. That contradicts the statutory scheme, under which six months is the earliest point at which a decree can even be considered, not a deadline by which one must be granted. This option is incorrect.
2. Option (B): This claims the court shall pass the decree specifically after eighteen months. Eighteen months is merely the outer limit within which the process must conclude, not a fixed date on which the decree is guaranteed to be passed. This option is incorrect.
3. Option (C): This states that the district court shall not immediately pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent. Since the law mandates a minimum six-month gap between presentation of the petition and any decree, along with a hearing and an inquiry, an immediate decree is never legally possible at the point of presentation. This option correctly describes the legal position.
4. Option (D): This claims the court shall immediately pass a decree if satisfied the marriage was valid. Even a court fully satisfied of the marriage's validity still cannot bypass the mandatory waiting period, hearing, and inquiry requirements; validity of the marriage is not the only condition that must be met. This option is incorrect.

None of the timelines described in (A), (B) or (D) reflect the actual statutory process; only the general proposition that no immediate decree can be passed is legally accurate.

Therefore, the correct answer is The district court shall not immediately pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent.

Answer 3

The correct option is (C): The district court shall not pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent as the requirements for grant of divorce are not fulfilled.

Answer 4

A valid petition for divorce by mutual consent under the special marriage law requires the parties to jointly present the petition, on the ground that they have lived separately for a year or more and that they have mutually agreed the marriage should be dissolved. Here, Ms. A alone presented the petition, and the ground cited was Mr. B's alleged adultery, not a joint statement of mutual agreement to dissolve the marriage. The question asks what follows from this.

1. Option (A): This assumes the court will proceed to a decree by mutual consent six months after presentation. That assumes a validly constituted mutual consent petition exists in the first place, which is not the case here since the petition was not jointly presented and does not rest on mutual agreement. This option is incorrect.
2. Option (B): This similarly assumes the eighteen-month timeline for a mutual consent decree applies. The same defect applies: without a joint petition and a stated mutual agreement to dissolve the marriage, there is no valid mutual consent petition on which any such timeline could run. This option is incorrect.
3. Option (C): This states the court will not pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent because the requirements are not fulfilled. Since the petition was presented unilaterally by Ms. A, alleging fault (adultery) rather than expressing mutual agreement, the essential ingredients of a mutual consent petition, jointness and mutual agreement, are both missing. This option correctly identifies the outcome.
4. Option (D): This attributes the failure to the parties not having lived separately for more than one year. But the facts state they have lived separately for exactly one year, so this specific reasoning is factually inaccurate, even though it reaches a similar no-decree conclusion. Since the stated ground for refusal is wrong, this option does not correctly capture why the petition fails.

The petition fails not because of the separation period, but because it was not jointly presented and does not reflect mutual agreement to dissolve the marriage, which is exactly what option (C) captures.

Therefore, the correct answer is The district court shall not pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent as the requirements for grant of divorce are not fulfilled.

Answer 5

The correct option is (A): The district court shall pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent after all other legal requirements are fulfilled.

Answer 6

Here, Ms. A and Mr. B jointly presented a petition for divorce by mutual consent, citing three years of living separately and mutual agreement that the marriage should end. This checks all the threshold boxes the law requires for a mutual consent petition: joint presentation, separation exceeding one year, and mutual agreement. The question asks what the district court will do next.

1. Option (A): This states the court will pass a decree after all other legal requirements are fulfilled. Since the threshold conditions for a valid mutual consent petition are satisfied on these facts, what remains is compliance with the procedural requirements, the minimum waiting period, the hearing, and the inquiry, before a decree follows. This accurately reflects the next step.
2. Option (B): This claims the court will pass the decree immediately because the separation exceeds one year. Satisfying the separation requirement is necessary but not sufficient; the court still cannot bypass the mandatory waiting period, hearing, and inquiry simply because the separation period is met. This option is incorrect.
3. Option (C): This claims the marriage itself is invalid. Nothing in the facts suggests any defect in the special marriage between Ms. A and Mr. B; interfaith marriages under the special marriage law are legally recognized, so there is no basis to treat this marriage as invalid.
4. Option (D): This claims no decree can be passed because neither party is at fault. Mutual consent divorce is, by definition, a no-fault route; the parties do not need to establish fault against one another, so the absence of fault is irrelevant to whether a decree can eventually be granted.

Since the essential conditions for mutual consent divorce are satisfied, the correct outcome is that the decree will follow once the remaining procedural steps are completed, not immediately and not for the reasons given in (B), (C) or (D).

Therefore, the correct answer is The district court shall pass a decree of divorce by mutual consent after all other legal requirements are fulfilled.

Answer 7

The correct option is (D): Both (A) and (B).

Answer 8

Ms. A and Mr. B jointly presented their petition for mutual consent divorce, citing three years of separation and mutual agreement, satisfying the threshold conditions. The twist here is that Mr. B appeared before the court through video-conferencing rather than in person. The passage clarifies that personal presence at the time of presenting the joint petition is not mandatory, since the court can be satisfied through alternative means, such as affidavits, that the requirements are met. The question asks which statement correctly follows.

1. Option (A): This states the court may pass a decree six months after presentation. Since six months is the earliest point at which the court becomes competent to grant the decree, and the statute uses discretionary language rather than mandating a decree at that exact point, describing this as something the court may do, rather than shall do, at six months, is accurate.
2. Option (B): This states the court shall pass a decree once all other legal requirements are fulfilled. Since the threshold conditions are satisfied and mere physical absence is not fatal given the video-conferencing appearance, this general proposition, that the decree follows once the remaining procedural requirements are complete, holds true.
3. Option (C): This claims the court will not pass a decree at all. Since personal physical presence is expressly not mandatory under the governing procedure, and the substantive requirements of joint petition, separation, and mutual agreement are all met, there is no basis to conclude the petition fails outright.
4. Option (D): Since both (A) and (B) are independently accurate statements, neither contradicting the other, the option combining them captures the complete correct position.

Both the permissive six-month timeline in (A) and the general procedural requirement in (B) are correct statements of law, and neither is inconsistent with the appearance of Mr. B by video-conferencing.

Therefore, the correct answer is Both (A) and (B).

Answer 9

The correct option is (C): The district court shall not pass a decree of divorce because there was no mutual consent between parties.

Answer 10

Ms. A and Mr. B jointly presented a mutual consent divorce petition, citing three years of separation and mutual agreement. Six months later, the district court, on inquiry, found that Ms. A's consent to presenting the petition had been obtained through fraud. Since genuine, freely given mutual consent is at the heart of this form of divorce, the question asks what effect this finding has.

1. Option (A): This claims the court will pass a decree because the legal requirements are fulfilled. A consent obtained by fraud is not genuine consent, so the very requirement of mutual, voluntary agreement to dissolve the marriage fails, regardless of how the petition otherwise reads on paper. This option is incorrect.
2. Option (B): This claims the decree follows simply because the marriage was validly solemnized under the special marriage law. The validity of the original marriage is a separate question from whether the present divorce petition reflects genuine mutual consent; a valid marriage does not cure a fraudulently obtained consent to dissolve it. This option is incorrect.
3. Option (C): This states the court will not pass a decree because there was no genuine mutual consent between the parties. Since the court itself found that Ms. A's consent was procured by fraud, the essential element of true mutual consent is absent, and the petition cannot succeed on that basis. This option correctly captures the legal consequence.
4. Option (D): This claims the decree is refused because Ms. A has not been punished for the fraud. Whether or not Ms. A faces separate punishment for committing fraud is a distinct legal question from whether the divorce petition itself can proceed; the refusal to grant a decree flows from the absence of genuine consent, not from any need to first punish the fraud. This option is incorrect.

The decisive factor is that fraud vitiated the mutual consent itself, which is exactly what option (C) identifies, rather than any question of punishing the fraud separately.

Therefore, the correct answer is The district court shall not pass a decree of divorce because there was no mutual consent between parties.