CHENNAI: If a married couple wants divorce by mutual consent, it is not a court's business to deny them judicial separation by insisting on knowing the reason for their decision, the Madras high court has said.Noting that a court could not act like a fact-finding authority, a division of Justice K K Sasidharan and Justice N Gokulraj said: "In case the marriage is a failure and the parties wanted to put an end to the marital bind, the court should respect the sentiments and grant divorce. It is not the intention of the legislature to deny divorce in spite of the parties taking a conscious decision to part ways."Rapping a family court in Tirunelveli for having dismissed a joint divorce plea filed by a couple that had been living separately for more than a year, the judges said: "Once it is convinced that it would not be possible for the parties to live together and that they have opted to dissolve the marriage peacefully, the endeavour of the court must be to grant a decree of divorce rather than compelling them to live separately even thereafter."In the present case, the couple was married in May 2013. However, they started living separately from July 2014 onwards. In 2015, they filed a joint petition for dissolution of the marriage, but it was rejected by the court on the ground that they had not mentioned the reasons for their separation.The bench, disapproving of the order and setting it aside, said that under Section 13-B (2) of the Hindu Marriage Act, a court has to satisfy as to whether the marriage has been solemnised and that the averments in the petition are true."In case the parties have been living separately for one year before the initiation of the joint petition for divorce and that there is no scope for reunion, normally, the court has no other option than to grant the degree of divorce," the judges said.Noting that the family court's query on reason for the divorce plea was not at all relevant, they said: "It is not for the court to probe into such reasons and decide as to whether parties were justified in living separately."Calling the Tirunelveli family court's order misconceived, the bench set it aside and granted decree of divorce to the couple.