HARMEETA SINGH Vs. RAJAT TANEJA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) . Issue summons to defendant in the ordinary process, by registered A.D. Post, electronic mail as well as facsimile, returnable for 12th March, 2003. Service be effected on all the addresses disclosed in the plaint. I.A. 576 of 2003:

(2.) Issue notice of this application to the defendant, returnable on 12th March, 2003.

(3.) Matrimonial disputes between estranged spouses are the most bitterly fought litigation raising myriad awkward questions. Not unoften, the jurisdiction of more than one Court can be invoked where the husband and wife have started residing in different territories, either nationally or internationally. It must then be decided that from amongst them which Court should be best suited and therefore competent to exercise jurisdiction. Where the choice is between Forums within the same nation or community of countries, the difficulty is usually easily resolved. Judges within the same national boundaries tend to be open to relinquishing their jurisdiction in favour of the Court most conveniently placed, keeping the parties in view. Regretfully, this does not happen where trans-border challenges are laid by the sparring spouses, as even Judges who are normally intellectually liberated and not parochial, succumb to innate chauvinism. The endeavour of Judges in every corner of the world should be to look only towards alleviating the human suffering that is endemic in every matrimonial dispute, since persons who may otherwise be willing to forgo their rights and go a long way to arrive at a compromise in other litigation, would fight to the very end. I have passed these orders after fresh reflection, and would be subject to modification after hearing the respondent.