The short answer: section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 lets one spouse seek divorce without the other’s consent, but only on specific grounds — cruelty, desertion for at least two continuous years, adultery, conversion to another religion, incurable mental disorder, a virulent and incurable disease, renunciation of the world (sanyaas), or presumption of death after seven years of being unheard of. Naming a ground in the petition is the easy part; the court grants a decree only once that ground is actually proved with evidence, on the ordinary civil standard of preponderance of probability. What follows is what each ground genuinely requires to succeed, not just what the section says.
Cruelty (क्रूरता) — the most commonly pleaded ground
Cruelty covers both physical and mental cruelty, and Indian courts have accepted for decades that mental cruelty alone is enough — there is no requirement of violence. What counts is not any one incident but a pattern: sustained humiliation, persistent false accusations, unreasonable denial of conjugal relations, or conduct that makes it genuinely unsafe or unbearable for the other spouse to continue living together. Filing a false criminal complaint against a spouse, for instance, has repeatedly been treated as cruelty. What does not count is ordinary friction, disagreement, or a single heated quarrel — the threshold is conduct a reasonable person could not be expected to endure, shown through specific dated incidents rather than general allegations of an unhappy marriage.
Desertion — four elements, not just living apart
Desertion requires four things to be shown together, for a continuous period of at least two years immediately before the petition is filed: actual separation, an intention on the deserting spouse’s part to bring the marriage to an end (animus deserendi), absence of consent from the deserted spouse, and absence of any reasonable cause for the separation. A spouse who leaves because of the other’s cruelty, or by mutual agreement to live apart temporarily, has not deserted in the legal sense. Constructive desertion is also recognised — where one spouse’s conduct forces the other to leave the matrimonial home, the one whose conduct caused the departure can be treated as the deserter, even though they stayed behind.
Adultery
A single act of voluntary sexual intercourse by the respondent with a person other than their spouse, during the subsistence of the marriage, is sufficient. Direct proof is rare, so courts commonly rely on circumstantial evidence — opportunity, conduct, correspondence, or other material that supports a reasonable inference. Naming and dragging a third party into the proceedings without a genuine evidentiary basis is discouraged and can itself work against the petitioner.
Conversion to another religion
If the respondent has ceased to be Hindu by converting to another religion, the other spouse can seek divorce on this ground alone, without needing to show any additional fault or cruelty.
Incurable mental disorder
The respondent must be suffering from a mental disorder of a kind and to an extent that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with them. This requires medical evidence, not a lay description of odd or difficult behaviour, and courts weigh the disorder’s severity and its actual effect on the marriage rather than treating a diagnosis alone as automatically sufficient.
Virulent and incurable disease
The respondent must be suffering from a disease in a communicable form that is both virulent and incurable. Note that leprosy was removed from this ground specifically — and from the Act generally — by the Personal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019, so a petition should not cite it; the current wording covers other communicable diseases meeting the same threshold, again established through medical evidence.
Renunciation and presumption of death
Renunciation of the world by entering a religious order (sanyaas) is a distinct ground, requiring proof that the respondent has genuinely and finally given up worldly life, not merely become more religious. Presumption of death applies where the respondent has not been heard of as alive for at least seven years by people who would naturally have heard from them — the petitioner has to show that genuine, reasonable enquiries were made.
Grounds available only to a wife
Section 13(2) gives a wife two further grounds not available to a husband: that the husband has another wife living from a marriage solemnised before the Hindu Marriage Act came into force, or, in narrower and now largely historical circumstances, that the marriage was solemnised before she turned fifteen and she repudiated it before turning eighteen.
What the court actually needs — evidence, not adjectives
Every one of these grounds is proved on the ordinary civil standard — preponderance of probability, not the higher criminal standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt. In practice that still means specific, dated, corroborated material: messages, medical records, witness testimony, police or hospital records where relevant, and a petition drafted around particular incidents rather than general statements that a marriage “did not work out.” A petition heavy on adjectives and light on facts is the single most common reason a contested case runs longer than it should, because the other side is entitled to contest every unproven allegation and cross-examine on it.
How a contested case actually proceeds
After the petition and the respondent’s written statement, the court frames issues — the specific factual questions each side must prove. Both sides then lead evidence, examining and cross-examining witnesses, before final arguments and judgment. This realistically takes well over a year, sometimes several, depending on the court’s schedule, how many witnesses are involved, and whether either side seeks adjournments. Settlement remains possible at any stage; a contested case that resolves through negotiation is commonly converted into a mutual consent petition, which can then conclude far faster than the contested track it started on.
Where this leaves you
Choosing a ground is not just a legal label — it decides what evidence has to be gathered before the petition is even filed, and gathering it after the fact is much harder than gathering it as events happen. If cruelty or desertion is developing rather than finished — separation not yet at two years, for instance — that timing itself affects when and how to file.
Our advocates handle contested and mutual consent divorce petitions before the Family Courts at Dwarka, Saket, Tis Hazari and Rohini, and can assess which ground genuinely fits your facts before anything is filed. Call 99115 44811 to discuss a specific matter.
This article explains the general grounds for contested divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act and does not constitute legal advice on any particular marriage. No advocate can guarantee the outcome of a contested case; every matter turns on its own facts and evidence.