NEETHU MOHAN Vs. VISHNU ANILKUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner and respondent are wife and husband respectively. Their marriage was solemnized on 19.01.2017. However, disputes arose between them and the marriage became irretrievably broken down.

(2.) The original petitioner herein filed a petition for divorce under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act and later approached this Court seeking a direction for a time bound disposal of the case. By order dated 03.06.2019, this Court directed the Family Court, Thiruvananthapuram to dispose of the petition for divorce within a period of one year.

(3.) It is pleaded that, in the meantime, the parties arrived at an amicable settlement on realising their inability to live as husband and wife and accordingly, they jointly filed an application for divorce by mutual consent on 31.01.2020. The said petition is numbered as O.P.No.264/2020 before the Family Court, Thiruvananthapuram. Counsel for the petitioner submits that since the respondent husband is presently employed at Qatar, he has appointed his father as the Power of Attorney and the same has also been filed before the Family Court seeking permission to conduct the case on behalf of his son. It is also pointed out that due to the pandemic, even after the lapse of the statutory period of six months, the case has not been disposed of. Further delay would prejudice the parties and will even affect their hopes of a possible remarriage. It is in such circumstances that the petitioner has preferred this original petition seeking a direction to dispose of O.P.No.264/2020 before the Family Court, Thiruvananthapuram in a time bound manner after granting permission to the parties to the litigation to submit their statement through video conference or such other similar facilities permitted by law.