JITENDER ARORA Vs. SUKRITI ARORA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Marriage between appellant No. 1 (hereinafter referred to as the 'appellant') and respondent No. 1 (hereinafter referred to as the 'respondent') was solemnized sometime in the year 1999, which was got registered with the Registrar of Marriages, Faridabad on 14.12.1999. The parties lived thereafter till March 2000 in Faridabad. However, carrying this notion that great future lies for them out of India, the couple shifted to U.K. on 23.03.2000. Ms. Vaishali Arora was born out of this wedlock on 14.01.2002. Career-wise or financially, whether the couple was better off in U.K., is not known. However, the soil of U.K. certainly did not prove conducive to their matrimonial relationship which, with the passage of time, turned bad to worst and from sweet to savoury to bitter. So much so, legal battles started between them. Eschewing the details in this behalf which are not needed and can be avoided for the sake of brevity, suffice is to mention that respondent has taken decree of divorce from the Court in U.K. Likewise, appellant who had shifted to India along with Vaishali in 2010, filed the petition for divorce and has obtained decree of divorce against the respondent. Both the divorce decrees are ex-parte against each other. Fact remains, which is to be emphasised, that the appellant and respondent have put an end to their matrimonial alliance and the aforesaid move on their part clearly depicts that both of them wanted divorce from each other. That is the reason that the aforesaid ex-parte divorce decrees are not questioned by any of them.

(2.) As it happens in such cases, an acrimonious and charged up battle between the appellant and the respondent has got concentrated upon the custody of Vaishali Arora. Though the couple had moved to U.K. on 23.03.2000, Vaishali was born on 14.01.2002 in Holy Family Hospital, Delhi. The respondent had come to India when she was pregnant and shortly after her birth, she went back along with the appellant and the new born child. Vaishali came to India in July, 2002 to stay with her paternal grandparents in Faridabad and went back to U.K. in Jan., 2003. Matrimonial discord started erupting between the parties thereafter. Since both of them were having their permanent jobs, the services of Katie Bradbury, a Child Minder were obtained by them when Vaishali was merely 13 months old. In July, 2004, both husband and wife and their child were granted permanent resident status of U.K. Thereafter, the parties had been coming to India off and on quite regularly. Vaishali was admitted in a school in Camberley, U.K. In July, 2007, Vaishali came to India and joined Manav Rachna International School where she studied upto March, 2008. Thereafter, she again went back to U.K. where she was admitted in a school. On 07.02007, Pushti, second daughter, was born to the parties. Thereafter, the matrimonial relationship between the appellant and the respondent became more bitter and abusive. Respondent alleged the acts of domestic violence perpetrated upon her by the appellant. Surrey Social Services Department investigated into the issues of domestic violence. During this period, the impact of adverse relations between the spouses upon their child Vaishali was also studied from psychological point of view by the officer of the said Department and reports given from time to time.

(3.) In June, 2007, Vaishali was issued Indian Passport by Indian High Commission in London. On 04.08.2007, the appellant came to India. As pointed out above, Vaishali had already come to India and was admitted in a school in July, 2007. The appellant and Vaishali remained in India till April, 2008. Even the respondent decided to move back to India with her parents. However, on 104.2008, the appellant went back to U.K. The respondent remained in India and went back to U.K. in May, 2009. On reaching U.K., she lodged a complaint with the police on 105.2009 to trace the whereabouts of Vaishali. Thereafter, she filed a case in the U.K. Court in which, on 04.06.2009, an ex-parte order was passed prohibiting the appellant from removing two minor children from England and Wales. Further, restraint order was passed against the appellant from removing Vaishali from attendance at Alwyn Infants School where she was studying at that time. The appellant filed cross application and it led to further legal tussle between the parties wherein the Court passed orders from time to time. It is in Nov., 2009 that the respondent filed divorce proceedings against the appellant in a Court in U.K. wherein she has been granted decree of divorce. On 24.11.2009, as aforesaid, the appellant shifted to India along with Vaishali. In their absence, the respondent obtained British Citizenship of Vaishali on 107.2010.