annulment process

It appears that your marriage was registered under "Special Marriage Act".  Annualment of marriage is different to divorce.  Again, it appears, you are seeking divorce, because, in your querry I could not find any ground for annualment of marriage.  For divorce, it appears, that you and your husband both are willing.  If so, Under Section 28 of Special Marriage Act, you can move joint application before the Additional District Judge / Family Court (if there is any) seeking the "mutual consent divorce".  for that both parties are required to appear.  After six months from the date of filing this application, if both parties move application reiterating their decision, the decree of divorce by mutual consent will be given.

First of all I would like to thank you for your reply. So if he will not cordinate with the divorce, I can just file annulment? I have reasons to file an annulment also. I am just thinking that with our issues in the moment I will probably file an annulment and go to Goa myself to file it. Sorry for changing my query, I am just curious what are my options if he doesn't want to do the divorce because of the hassles. How will be the process of the the annulment? What are the requirements? Does he need to sign anything? Does it take 6 months also to wait? Sorry for the bunch of questions. I really want to pursue the annulment asap.

Thank you..

Cheers!

~Lisa

Annualment is different to divorce.  For getting annualment (it means the marriage is declared null and void and in the eyes of law, no marriage has occured between the parties), the grounds are limited - (1) the marriage is not consumated due to impotence of the other party. (2) the consent of the petitioner for marrige is take by fraud or force and material fact pertaining to the respondent is concealed from the petitioner (3) the respondent has become pregnant by some one other than petitioner.  In your case, it appears, there is no ground available for annualment decree.

For divorce, there are two methods.  Both husband and wife contest the case and after that divorce may be granted or refused on the basis of merits of the case.  The second method is that what I explained in my earlier post - mutual consent divorce, which is easier, cheaper and can be concluded within 7 to 8 months.  In the contested divorce case grounds available are - cruelty, desertion of more than 2 years, continuous adultery and mental disorder,   It will take some time to get divorce, if the grounds are proved to the satisfaction of the court.

If his only problem is to come to court and if he does not have any problem to give mutual consent divorce, then you can ask him to give "power of attorney" to some one and that person will come on behalf of husband and give statement in court in "mutual consent divorce" petition.  Some courts accept power of attorney in the place of the party and some courts would insist the presence of the party.

Wish you best of luck.

I think I should just convince him to do the divorce by mutual consent. Would you know how many times should

we go to Goa to file the divorce?

Is there any way we can file the divorce in the country we are in now? Just a wild thinking.. maybe not possible

but I just want to make sure that there is other option. Some cases in the USA, you can file divorce in Mexico to

make it quicker.I am thinking that maybe in Goa, India there is another way to get this things done.

Thank you for your help. I am glad that I joined this forum. BIG help!!

~Lisa Johnson

Mr. Parekh,

Thank you for your advice. I am thinking that maybe it is better to do the divorce by mutual consent and just use Power of Attorney if he can't come with me to file the divorce. I just hope that the Judge will acceot it. Would you know if there is any restrictions for his representative will be?

I really want to hire a lawyer for this case to make sure the process will be quick and easy.

Again, thank you for your help.

~Lisa Johnson

Ms. Lisa Johnson,

If you both are living in a same country outside India, please find out from Indian Embassy situated in that country, whether they have designated any one as Marriage Officer and he has been vested with the powers to pass a decree of divorce under "mutual consent divorce" provision.  Then you can move application before that officer.  Then you need not to come all the way to Goa, because, the Special Marriage Act provides the parties to file the case from the place, where they last resided together.

Some courts accept power of attorney in the place of the party and some courts would insist the presence of the party.

When I said so in my earlier post, I said it with some responsibility and on the basis of judicial precedents.  Those who have got doubt about authenticity of the proposition that Power of Attorney will not work in Mutual consent divorce petition can refer the case decided in hon'ble Delhi High Court in "Vinay Jude Dias vs. Renajeet Kaur" 2008 (106) DRJ 183 delivered by justice Sh. Shiv Narayan Dhingra.  The law declared in the said case is -Divorce petition by mutual consent - Special power of Attorney in favour of person executed by petitioner to appear before court and testify about contents of petition - Attorney is competent to act on behalf of principal.