Petition for divorce under the Divorce Act, 1869

A petition for divorce is presented by the husband or the wife to the district court on one or more of the grounds the section lists against the other party. The Act states who presents it, where, on what grounds, what it must state and how it is verified; the form it takes is a matter for the rules of the court it goes to.

What such a document contains

It is presented by either the husband or the wife
The section provides for the petition to be presented by either party to the marriage, to the district courtSection 10(1), Divorce Act, 1869
It states a ground the section lists
Adultery, cruelty, desertion for the period the section states, and the other grounds the section enumerates against the other party — the petition rests on one or more of them and on nothing outside the listSection 10(1), Divorce Act, 1869
A further ground the Act opens to the wife
The Act provides a further ground on which a wife may present a petition for the dissolution of her marriage — that the husband has, since the marriage was solemnised, been guilty of rape, sodomy or bestiality — alongside the grounds either party to the marriage may rely onSection 10(2), Divorce Act, 1869
The district court it is presented to
The court of the District Judge — a judge of a principal civil court of original jurisdiction, however designated — within the local limits of whose ordinary jurisdiction, or of whose jurisdiction under the Act, the marriage was solemnised, or the husband and wife reside or last resided togetherSection 10(1) read with Section 3(2) and 3(3), Divorce Act, 1869
It states that there is no collusion or connivance
Every petition under the Act for a decree of dissolution of marriage states that there is not any collusion or connivance between the petitioner and the other party to the marriageSection 47, Divorce Act, 1869
Its statements are verified as a plaint's are
The statements in the petition are verified by the petitioner, or some other competent person, in the manner the law requires for the verification of plaints, and may be referred to as evidence at the hearingSection 47, Divorce Act, 1869
The particulars of the marriage and of the parties
When and where the marriage was solemnised, and the names and addresses of the parties. Such petitions carry these; no section read for this section prescribes the listConvention rather than law
The relief sought
A decree of divorce, and conventionally any order on maintenance, custody or property sought with it. The Act states what the court may decree and not what a petition must ask forConvention rather than law

The periods that attach to it

  • Where desertion is the ground, it must have continued for the period the clause states immediately before the petition is presented. — Section 10(1)(ix), Divorce Act, 1869

Not established

  • The Act states who presents the petition, to which court, what it must state and how it is verified. It also sets out forms in a Schedule of its own, which may be used, and leaves the rules for proceedings under it to the High Court of the State. Neither that Schedule nor any High Court's rules are described here.

What this guide is not

Of the points listed below, six are fixed by the Divorce Act, 1869 itself and two are convention — such documents carry them, and no provision read for this section requires them. This is a description of a kind of document and not a document — confirm the contents of any document in a particular matter with an advocate.

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