If both spouses agree to end the marriage, a Mutual Consent Divorce under Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 is the most sensible legal route. It is relatively quick, private, and avoids a prolonged contested trial.
Eligibility requires both parties to be Hindu (or governed by the Hindu Marriage Act), to have lived separately for at least one year, to mutually agree that they cannot live together, and to agree on alimony, child custody, and property.
The process has two motions. In the first motion, both parties jointly file a petition before the Family Court, which records their statements and grants a cooling-off period of six months. In the second motion, after six months (and within eighteen months), both parties appear again to confirm their decision, and the court passes the divorce decree.
The Supreme Court in Amardeep Singh v. Harveen Kaur (2017) held that courts have discretion to waive the six-month period if the marriage has irretrievably broken down. Mutual consent divorce, done with proper legal advice, can be concluded within six to eight months.