Hindu Marriage Act, 1955

The Act applies to Hindus by religion in any of its forms or developments, including Virashaivas, Lingayats and followers of the Brahmo, Prarthana and Arya Samaj; to Buddhists, Jainas and Sikhs; and to certain other persons specified in Section 2.

The statutory explanation also covers specified children brought up in the relevant family or community and persons who convert or reconvert to Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina or Sikh religion. Members of Scheduled Tribes are excluded unless the Central Government otherwise directs by notification under Section 2(2).

1. Neither party should have a spouse living at the time of marriage.
2. At the time of marriage, neither party should be incapable of giving valid consent because of unsoundness of mind; nor suffer from a mental disorder of the statutory degree; nor be subject to recurrent attacks of insanity.
3. The bridegroom must have completed 21 years and the bride 18 years.
4. The parties must not be within prohibited degrees of relationship unless a valid custom or usage governing each permits the marriage.
5. The parties must not be sapindas of each other unless a valid custom or usage governing each permits the marriage.

Exam point: Contravention of clauses (i), (iv) and (v) may make the marriage void under Section 11. Contravention of the mental-capacity condition in Section 5(ii) falls within Section 12 and may make the marriage voidable, subject to the Act.

Section 7 - Ceremonies

A Hindu marriage may be solemnised according to the customary rites and ceremonies of either party. Where those rites include saptapadi-seven steps jointly taken before the sacred fire-the marriage becomes complete and binding when the seventh step is taken.

Section 8 - Registration

Section 8 enables State Governments to make rules for entering particulars of Hindu marriages in a Hindu Marriage Register and permits a State to make registration compulsory. Non-registration does not, by itself, affect the validity of a Hindu marriage under Section 8(5).

The Supreme Court in Seema v. Ashwani Kumar issued directions aimed at compulsory registration of marriages through appropriate rules. Actual registration procedure is governed by the applicable State or Union Territory law/rules.

Either spouse may seek divorce on the grounds provided by Section 13(1), including:

• Adultery: voluntary sexual intercourse with a person other than the spouse after solemnisation of the marriage. Adultery is no longer a criminal offence, but remains a matrimonial ground.
• Cruelty.
• Desertion: continuous desertion for at least two years immediately preceding the petition, subject to the statutory explanation.
• Conversion: the other party has ceased to be Hindu by conversion to another religion.
• Mental disorder: of the nature and degree stated in Section 13(1)(iii).
• Venereal disease in a communicable form.
• Renunciation of the world: by entering a religious order.
• Presumption of death: not heard of as alive for seven years or more by persons who would naturally have heard of the person.

Current-law correction: leprosy was removed as a divorce ground by the Personal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019 with effect from 1 March 2019.

Section 13(1A)

Either spouse may also seek divorce where there has been no resumption of cohabitation for one year or more after a decree for judicial separation, or no restitution of conjugal rights for one year or more after a decree for restitution.

Section 13(2) gives a wife additional statutory grounds, including specified pre-Act polygamous marriages, rape/sodomy/bestiality by the husband as stated in the clause, certain maintenance decrees/orders followed by non-cohabitation, and repudiation of a marriage solemnised before she attained the prescribed age, subject to the precise statutory conditions.

Both spouses may jointly present a petition where they have been living separately for at least one year, have not been able to live together, and have mutually agreed that the marriage should be dissolved.

Under Section 13B(2), the second motion is ordinarily made not earlier than six months after presentation of the petition and not later than eighteen months. In Amardeep Singh v. Harveen Kaur (2017), the Supreme Court held that the six-month period is directory and may be waived where the conditions laid down by the Court are satisfied.

Section 11 - Void marriage

A marriage solemnised after commencement of the Act is null and void if it contravenes Section 5(i), 5(iv) or 5(v): a living spouse, prohibited relationship, or sapinda relationship, subject to valid custom where the Act permits.

Section 12 - Voidable marriage

A voidable marriage remains valid unless annulled by a decree. Grounds include non-consummation owing to impotence, contravention of Section 5(ii), consent obtained by force or fraud of the statutory kind, and pregnancy by another person at the time of marriage, subject to the limitations in Section 12.

Section 16 - Children of void and voidable marriages

Section 16 confers legitimacy on children of void marriages and on children of voidable marriages annulled under Section 12, subject to the property-right limitation in Section 16(3) and subsequent Supreme Court interpretation.

Section 17: a Hindu marriage is void if, at its date, either party had a husband or wife living. The text of Section 17 historically incorporates Sections 494 and 495 of the Indian Penal Code.

Current criminal-law position: from 1 July 2024, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 replaced the IPC for new offences. The corresponding offence of marrying again during the lifetime of a husband or wife is in Section 82 BNS, subject to statutory savings and transitional rules for earlier conduct.

Section 18: contravention of the minimum-age condition may attract punishment up to two years' rigorous imprisonment or fine up to ₹1 lakh or both; contravention of prohibited-degree or sapinda conditions may attract simple imprisonment up to one month or fine up to ₹1,000 or both.

Section 24 - Maintenance pendente lite and litigation expenses

Where either the wife or the husband has no independent income sufficient for support and necessary expenses of the proceeding, the court may order the other spouse to pay reasonable litigation expenses and monthly support during the proceeding, having regard to the incomes of both parties.

The proviso states that, as far as possible, an application under Section 24 should be disposed of within sixty days from service of notice on the spouse.

Section 25 - Permanent alimony and maintenance

At the time of passing any decree under the Act or subsequently, the court may order either spouse to pay the other a gross sum or monthly/periodical sum, having regard to the statutory factors. The order may be varied, modified or rescinded on change of circumstances. Remarriage and specified post-decree conduct are expressly relevant under Section 25(3).

Maintenance may also arise under other laws, including the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 and the presently applicable summary-maintenance provision in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.

The court may pass interim orders and make provisions in the decree concerning custody, maintenance and education of minor children, consistently with their wishes wherever possible. Applications concerning maintenance and education of minor children during the proceeding should, as far as possible, be disposed of within sixty days from service of notice.

• Yamunabai Anantrao Adhav v. Anantrao Shivram Adhav: a marriage contracted while a prior valid marriage subsists is void.
• Sarla Mudgal v. Union of India: conversion to Islam does not by itself dissolve a subsisting Hindu marriage so as to permit a second marriage without consequences.
• Lily Thomas v. Union of India: reaffirmed the legal position concerning conversion and second marriage during subsistence of the first Hindu marriage.
• Saroj Rani v. Sudarshan Kumar Chadha: leading Supreme Court authority on Section 9 restitution of conjugal rights.
• Seema v. Ashwani Kumar: Supreme Court directions concerning registration of marriages.
• Amardeep Singh v. Harveen Kaur: six-month period under Section 13B(2) may be waived in appropriate cases.

Section 14: ordinarily, a divorce petition cannot be presented before one year has elapsed from the date of marriage. The court may permit an earlier petition on the statutory ground of exceptional hardship to the petitioner or exceptional depravity of the respondent.

Section 15: after a decree of divorce, remarriage is lawful when there is no right of appeal, the appeal period has expired without an appeal, or an appeal has been dismissed.