Two different starting points
A contested petition asks a court to find that a specific ground for divorce, such as cruelty, desertion or a period of separation, has been made out on the evidence. This involves pleadings, evidence, cross-examination and argument, and it can extend over several years, particularly where custody or property is also disputed. A mutual consent petition under Section 13B instead records that both spouses agree the marriage has irretrievably broken down and asks the court to grant the divorce on that shared basis, once satisfied the consent is genuine and not obtained under duress.
The six-month interval and its waiver
Section 13B ordinarily requires two motions, six months apart, between the first and second hearing, intended to give the parties a chance to reconsider. In Amardeep Singh v. Harveen Kaur (2017) 8 SCC 746, the Supreme Court held that this interval is directory rather than mandatory, and can be waived where the marriage is truly beyond repair, the parties have genuinely settled all issues, and further delay would only cause hardship. Distance and the cost of repeated travel are exactly the kind of hardship courts have been willing to consider on such applications, though a waiver is never automatic and depends on the facts before the judge.
What a settlement needs to record
A settlement that is thin on detail tends to cause disputes later, often after the parties have both moved on with their lives abroad. A comprehensive settlement should set out maintenance in clear figures and timing, how any jointly or individually held property is to be divided, custody and visitation arrangements for any children including how visits abroad will work, and confirmation that any related criminal complaints, such as one under the cruelty provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, will be withdrawn or quashed as part of the same settlement. Leaving any of these open invites a fresh round of litigation once the ink is dry.
Which hearings actually need you there
Not every stage of either kind of case demands personal presence. Routine hearings can often be handled by an advocate on record, or attended by video link with the court's permission. The two motions in a mutual consent petition, where the parties confirm to the court that they still wish to proceed, and any hearing where evidence is recorded, are the stages where presence is most consistently expected, and it is worth planning travel around those dates rather than around the case generally.
