Supporting a proposed bill which seeks to make 'irretrievable breakdown of marriage' a new ground for grant of divorce,a Parliamentary panel on Tuesday opposed doing away with the prevailing waiting period before moving a joint motion for anulling marriage. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice which presented its report in Parliament on the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill,2010,said it favoured the broad objective of the Bill to introduce 'irretrievable breakdown of marriage' as a new ground for grant of a decree of divorce. At the same time,the Committee - headed by Jayanthi Natarajan (Congress) - said it is not in favour of "doing away" with the waiting period of six months before moving a joint motion in case of divorce by mutual consent as proposed in the Law Ministry Bill. "The Committee is of the view that the existing provisions of law for divorce by mutual consent are fair and reasonable and the prevailing cooling off period be retained so as to protect and preserve the institution of marriage," the report said. The Rajya Sabha Committee has also recommended that the Government should define the term 'irretrievable breakdown of marriage' in the Bill so that some uniform standards are followed in dealing with divorce petitions by the courts. It has also asked defining of the term 'grave financial hardship' to "avoid ambiguity". It also urged the government to clear its stand with regard to the adopted children as mentioned in the Bill which was introduced in the Upper House in August,2010.
