Sanjay And Manyata Wedding Ishue

It was a fast-track divorce that enabled Sanjay Dutt to tie the knot with Manyata early this month. In a rare waiver of the mandatory six months wait for a divorce by mutual consent, the family court in Bandra granted the actor and Rhea Pillai the decree in a month's time, thus paving the way for him to exchange vows with the new lady in his life days later on February 7.

Dutt and Rhea had been leading separate lives for the last eight years, never really got down to filing for divorce till January 2008.

And then they filed a plea by mutual consent - 'F28 of 2008' - citing irreconcilable differences to put a legal end to their marriage.

A divorce by mutual consent requires at least one year of separation which Dutt and Rhea clearly had. The law under the Hindu Marriage Act and even under the Special Marriage Act also stipulates that the court should wait for six months before passing an order to dissolve a marriage in response to a mutual consent divorce plea. The idea is to give a couple time to reconsider their decision to split.

The family court has been following the rule of the six month wait quite scrupulously and in over 99% cases of 'no fault' mutual consent divorce petitions, couples have to wait it out before they can legally go their separate ways.

In Dutt's case, the waiting period was waived, and he went on to tie the knot for the third time in Goa.

Lawyers specialising in divorce cases said a waiver in general should be encouraged and the "unnecessary window period'' done away with when there is little chance of a reconciliation between couples who have already lived separately for over a year before moving the court.

But several high profile lawyers also point out that they have been unsuccessful in getting such a waiver all the same. An application that's required to be made for such waivers usually ends in a rejection. Albeit, the six month wait is often done away with when a unilateral plea for divorce is eventually converted into a mutual request.

In Dutt's case, he and Rhea filed their petition in the Bandra family court in January and after a month made the necessary plea for a waiver.