Sana Shakil By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh has the highest pendency of divorce cases followed by Kerala, which has 61,970 divorce cases pending in its family courts, according to information from the Ministry of Law.

While Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state, Kerala accounts for less than three per cent of the country’s population, but it has more divorce cases pending than Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh. According to the law ministry, over 7 lakh divorce cases were awaiting adjudication in courts at the end of December 2017.

Of the 7,13,511 pending divorce cases, 2,64,409 are in Uttar Pradesh—38 per cent of the total pendency. In 2016, Kerala topped the list of states with matrimonial disputes, leaving behind Uttar Pradesh, whose population is almost seven times that of Kerala. In 2016, there was a pendency of over 52,000 such cases in Kerala while Uttar Pradesh had only about 6,000 such cases pending.

Bihar has 46,735 pending divorce cases, the third-highest. Maharashtra has 35,349 pending cases. Tamil Nadu, which had the most pending cases in 2014 and 2013, now stands at twelfth position with 21,672 cases awaiting adjudication. Rajasthan, Odisha, Gujarat, Delhi and Karnataka occupy ranks 6-10.