The Allahabad High Court in its recent order allowed transfer application filed by a woman, seeking to transfer a divorce case proceeding, from one court to another. The reason cited by the applicant-wife was that she had no one in her family to escort her on the journey to court.
Observing that this was a good ground for the transfer of a case., the Bench of Justice Vivek Varma allowed the application of the wife by noting,
In matrimonial cases, the convenience of the wife is the dominating factor for justifying the transfer of a matter.
Case:
Parties got married in 2017 as per Hindu rites.
Husband of the applicant filed a petition under Section 10 read with Section 13(1)(i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 before the Kanpur Court against the applicant seeking a divorce.
Thereafter, the wife filed the instant transfer application under Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 seeking transfer of the case proceedings from Kanpur to Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh.
Arguments by Wife
The woman contended before the Court that being a young woman, she cannot travel to district Kanpur, which is about 200 Kms. from district Prayagraj, to defend the proceedings with no one to escort her as she lives alone at Prayagraj.
The applicant completed her M.B.B.S course in the year 2012 and is currently a resident doctor at Kamla Nehru Memorial Hospital at Prayagraj. The applicant got herself enrolled in the course of Diplomate in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (for brevity hereinafter referred to as “DGO”) under the National Association for the Reproductive and Child Health of India- Indian College of Maternal and Child Health on 06.07.2019 at Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital, Prayagraj.
The applicant has also applied for the post of Medical Officer in Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital to discharge her professional duties after the completion of her diploma. The applicant is getting a monthly stipend of Rs. 10,000.
Arguments by Husband
On the other hand, the opposite party, her husband claimed in his affidavit before the Court that the applicant-wife would stay at Prayagraj for a temporary period only and also alleged that the instant transfer application had been filed only to delay and extend the divorce proceedings so instituted.
It is also averred in the counter affidavit that the husband is an employee of Sharma Nursing Home. The husband has deposited all the fees of the applicant for the DGO course and is making regular payments to the applicant for her maintenance. It is further asserted that the husband is taking care of the woman’s aged parents, who are not keeping well.
The man also asserted that there was a serious threat to his life at Prayagraj.
Allahabad High Court
The Court, at the outset, noted that there is no straight-jacket formula that can be adopted in order to determine the transfer proceedings.
The Court also observed that it is not a mandatory rule that the transfer applications are always to be transferred for the asking of the wife, but at the same time, the wife, in situations where she is disadvantaged on recognized parameters, for the sake of equity, her interests are to be safeguarded.
Regarding the travel cost, the Court noted that the expenditure involved in traveling to Kanpur from Allahabad was not very relevant in the case at hand as the Court can always direct the husband to pay for the wife’s travel.
However, the bench added, since the applicant-wife had no one in her family to escort her on the journey, the same had been held to be good ground for seeking transfer of a case.
In this regard, the Court referred to the Apex Court’s ruling in the case of Anjali Ashok Sadhwani Vs. Ashok Kishinchand Sadhwani, AIR 2009 SC 1374 and Sumita Singh Vs. Kumar Sanjay and anr., AIR 2002 SC 396.
So far as the allegation by the opposite party regarding the threat to his life at Prayagraj was concerned, the Court noted that the allegation was not based on any cogent material and as such, the said plea cannot be accepted by the Court.
Lastly, allowing the transfer application, the Court ordered that the case pending in the Court of the Principal Judge, Family Court, Kanpur Nagar be transferred to the competent Court at Prayagraj.
The Court at Kanpur has been directed to ensure early transmission of the record to district Prayagraj and the transferee court has been asked to make it convenient to ensure that the case is disposed of as early as possible within six months of the receipt of the record.
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