Alternate Relief in Divorce Proceedings

According to section 13-A of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 , if any proceeding under this Act, on a petition for dissolution of marriage by a decree of divorce, the court may, if it considers it just so to do having regard to the circumstances of the case, pass instead a decree for judicial separation unless:
1) the other spouse has ceased to be a Hindu by conversion to another religion
2) the other spouse has renounced the world by entering any religious order
3) the other spouse has not been heard of as being alive for a period of seven years or more by those persons who would naturally have heard of it, had that party been alive