Facebook isn't just a way to connect with old friends - it's also leading to more divorces among Indian couples, said some lawyers there.

In Mumbai, a young couple stood in front of a family court judge last week.

Their complaint against each other was that the other was always glued to Facebook, reported Times of India.

The judge reprimanded, then counselled, them. The couple finally admitted that they still did like each other, resolved to not "unfriend" each other, and to give their marriage another shot.

Some marriages may be saved, but Facebook - which a recent survey in the UK blamed for nearly a third of all divorces - is also leading to a rise in disputes in family courts across India.

"Facebook is fast becoming a reason many marriages are faltering," said celebrity divorce lawyer Mrinalini Deshmukh.

"There are now FB widows and 'spending time on Facebook' is replacing 'spending time online watching porn' as grounds for cruelty," he added.

Families frown at "inappropriate status updates, comments and photographs", said veteran family court lawyer Tara Hegde.

Facebook actually throws up proof of infidelity through pictures posted on friends' pages, said Mr Arthi P S, a Chennai-based divorce lawyer.

In Chennai, a woman dragged her husband to court after she found a picture of him in a "compromising" position with another girl on the page of a friend of her friend.

"It was a recent picture," she claimed, citing it as evidence. He is denying the charges in court.

Photographic evidence

Senior lawyer Sunil Mittal from Delhi said: "Photographs posted by friends or even husbands and wives are finding their way into divorce battles in a big way."

As divorce petitions get peppered with the mention of Facebook and printouts of web pages, the reason isn't merely that couples are spending more hours individually on the site, Mr Deshmukh said.

"Spending more time, especially at night before bedtime, with friends on Facebook or merely playing games on the site is no doubt eating into couples' together-time or intimacy," he said.

"If someone wants to have an affair or to flirt, then Facebook is an easy place to do it. People also use the 'friend finder' to reunite with school or college friends and some really reunite...

"One couple opted for mutual consent divorce after her husband found his former love on the social network," the lawyer said.

This article was first published in The New Paper.