A mutual consent divorce decree is designed to be final and durable — both parties agreed to it, so the ordinary route of challenging findings of fact is unavailable to someone who merely regrets what they consented to. But grounds for challenge do exist, and they are grounded in the integrity of consent itself: where genuine, free consent was absent, the decree can be questioned before the Gujarat High Court at Ahmedabad.

The principal grounds on which a mutual consent decree can be challenged are that the consent was vitiated by fraud, coercion, undue influence, or material misrepresentation. Section 23 of the Hindu Marriage Act requires the court to be satisfied, before passing a consent decree, that the consent was not so obtained — but courts rely on what is placed before them, and fraud or misrepresentation that was not apparent at the time of the hearing can later form the basis of a challenge. If you were pressured into signing the consent terms under threats, if your spouse concealed material assets or income that affected the fairness of the terms you agreed to, or if you were materially misled about what the decree entailed, these are grounds for challenge before the Gujarat HC.

There is also a vital procedural ground specific to mutual consent divorce: if a party genuinely withdrew their consent before the decree was actually passed — before the court passed the order at the second motion — no consent decree can validly be granted, as the Supreme Court confirmed in Hitesh Bhatnagar v. Deepa Bhatnagar. If a decree was passed despite a valid withdrawal of consent, the challenge on this ground is particularly strong. My standing advice is that the threshold for a successful challenge is high: ordinary regret, a change of mind after the decree, or dissatisfaction with terms you understood and agreed to will not suffice. A challenge must be based on actual vitiation of consent — fraud, force, withdrawal — not on the feeling that you could have done better. If you believe one of these grounds applies, move quickly — limitation runs from the decree, and delay weakens both the legal and practical case. The family law advocates at the Vadodara panel of Aapka Legal Advice can assess honestly whether your situation discloses a genuine ground or whether the decree is likely to stand.