Late Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pramod Mahajan's son Rahul Mahajan and his wife Shweta were on Thursday directed by a sessions court in Gurgaon to stay separately for six months before it took a decision on their plea for divorce by mutual consent.

District and Session Judge Ramendra Jain directed both of them to appear before the court again on August 1 after a gap of six months.

Shweta had earlier appeared in the court on December 13 last and had sought mutual consent divorce, but the court said it would take action only when both Rahul and Shweta appear jointly before it.

Their marriage was solemnised on August 29, 2006, in the presence of BJP's top brass, three months after Pramod Mahajan was shot dead in Mumbai.

The couple had completed their flying course together abroad and had worked as pilots with an airline company.

"It is a matter of mutual consent and private matter. I do not want to talk on it any more and what I have said is said and speculation is not part of it and my vocabulary," Rahul had said at that time.

The marriage apparently ran into trouble within a few months and a Mumbai tabloid had carried photographs of Shweta with what appeared to be a bruise on her arm after alleged physical abuse by Rahul. She, however, refuted the allegation.

Rahul was earlier hospitalised after an alleged drug overdose. After recovery, he was arrested by the Delhi Police on charges of drug possession and consumption and has an ongoing case against him.