Minansu Bhadra,Advocate

JUDICIAL SEPARATION   Section 10 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, provides for Judicial Separation. According to Sec 10 of the Act. Either party to a marriage, whether solemnized before or after the commencement of this Act, may present a petition praying for a decree for judicial separation on any of the grounds specified in sub-section (1) of Section 13, and in the case of a wife also on any of the grounds might have been presented. The effect of the decree is that certain mutual rights and obligations arising from marriage are put under suspension. The main purpose behind filing the petition for Judicial separation is to make interim financial arrangements for two of them, such as deciding which one will possess which property, and which one of them shall pay the other temporary financial support etc. Where a decree for judicial separation has been passed, it shall no longer be obligatory for the petitioner to cohabit with the respondent, but the court may, on the application by petition of either party and on being satisfied of the truth of the statement made in such petition, rescind the decree if it considers it just and reasonable to do so. Judicial or legal separation permits the parties to a marriage to live apart. It is a relief short of actual dissolution of marriage. So long as the decree is in force the parties to the marriage are permitted to live apart and it shall no longer be obligatory for either party to cohabit with the other. The object of this provision seems to be to afford an opportunity to the parties to reconcile their difference and to live together. If the parties do not cohabit for a period of one year or upwards after a decree for judicial separation was passed, either party to the marriage can claim dissolution of the marriage.