India's archaic fault-based divorce system must be reformed so that couples are free to end their marriage without having to blame each other for the break-up. But despite growing evidence that a fault basis for divorce drives couples to indulge in mudslinging, the government is not ready to change the law.

Families will suffer far less during the separation if the husband and wife do not have to cite mental cruelty or one of the other grounds for a divorce. The architects of India's first divorce laws, which influence the rules today, designed the legislation to reflect society's disapproval of a breakdown in a marriage which often had a negative social consequence for women.

However, we have come a long way since and a civilised society deserves a civilised divorce process which encourages people to look forward rather than what happened in the past. People divorce for many different reasons, not because of the nature of the divorce process itself. Moreover, children are often the first to suffer in an acrimonious divorce.