Judicial Separation - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition judicial-separation

Definition :

Judicial separation, granted either to husband or wife on the ground of adultery, cruelty, rape, sodomy, bestiality, non-compliance with a decree for restitution of conjugal rights, or desertion without cause for two years and upwards [(English) Judicature Act, 1925, s. 185]; also by justices, under the Married Women (Maintenance) Acts, 1895 to 1925, to the wife, on the conviction of the husband of aggravated assault, or on the ground of persistent cruelty, forcing her to live apart from him, or on the ground of his being an habitual drunkard [(English) Licensing Act, 1902,

s. 5]; and relief can also be obtained by a husband where the wife is an habitual drunkard (ibid.). Under Maintenance Acts the husband can be ordered to make weekly payments to his wife, which can be enforced by imprisonment [R. v. Richardson, (1909) 2 KB 851], but her judgment creditor cannot obtain equitable execution by the appointment of a receiver of such payments, Paquine v. Snary, (1909) 1 KB 688. See also Summ-ary Jurisdiction (Separation and Maintenance) Act, 1925 (15 & 16 Geo. 5, c. 51). See also DIVORCE.

No decree shall hereafter be made for a divorce a mensa et toro, but the husband or wife may obtain a decree of judicial separation, on the ground of adultery, of cruelty, or desertion without reason-able excuse for two years or upwards, and such decree shall have the effect of a divorce a mensa et toro under the existing law, and such other legal effect as hereinafter mentioned (Indian Divorce Act, 1869, (4 of 1869), s. 22 chapter V).

A separation of husband and wife under orders of court which puts an end to cohabitation but not to marriage itself [Hindu Marriage Act, ss. 9(2) and 10(1)]