ATULKAMAR NATWARLAL KADAKIA Vs. JYOTI ATULKUMAR KADAKIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) MODERN day jurisprudence advocates a benevolent approach in relation to the disposal of matrimonial litigation. This is further reinforced by the fact that a separate forum, namely, the Family Court, has been set up for the expeditious disposal of these proceedings. The first requirement in such situations is that the traditional approach of lengthy and legalistic pleadings requires to be curtailed, and secondly, that the Family Court itself must follow a more easy, relaxed and forthright procedure in the conduct of the proceedings. The object of setting up of a special forum was not in order to add to the number of courts, but in order to provide for a separate machinery where only this class of litigation would be taken up and quickly concluded. Working experience has unfortunately demonstrated that even though the Legislature intended that the parties themselves with the assistance of marriage counsellors and the Presiding Judge should arrive at quick conclusions, that the entire machinery has got bogged down in the old-fashioned procedure prevalent in Civil courts involving much paper work, long and formal recording of evidence and elaborate argumentative sessions and cumbersome judgments, all of which have contributed to a building up of arrears. An overhaul is essential in all these aspects which the Bar and the Bench of those courts as also the litigants will have to undertstand. With a degree of speed and efficiency having to be insisted upon, it was never the intention of the Legislature that parties to a broken marriage should be subjected to another innings of torture covering a good portion of their productive life and subjecting them to needless expenditure. The accent is on simplification and not on complication, which was why even representation by advocates was countermanded. This Court had occasion to lay down specific guidelines whereby advocates would be permitted to appear with the sole object of drawing upon their ability and expertise in accelerating the pace of disposal. This is a branch of law in which there is no place for dilabory tactics, or for complicating issues and even in those cases where lawyers are permitted, the Family Court Judges shall firmly ensure that they do not in any manner contribute to the lengthening of the proceedings.

(2.) THIS Court has had occasion to also prescribe the special approach that needs to be adopted while disposing of matrimonial proceedings. Decrees are often refused merely on the ground of a strict or rather harsh construction of the law and on a rigorous assessment of the material placed before the Court. The handicaps and limitations of the spouses, their inability to sometimes obtain documents and witnesses, the reluctance of third parties to get involved in delicate matters of this type, even if they are family members or friends, are angles which cannot be overlooked and that Court must bear in mind the current legal thinking prevelent all over the world that the continuance of a broken marriage/causes far greater trauma to the parties and even to the children than its severence. In these circumstances, the Family Court is expected to adopt a benevolent, charitable and even helpful approach even to the extent of making considerable allowance because a refusal of a relief will only be in the most exceptional situations.

(3.) THE appellant before us is the original petitioner in M. J. Petition No. 996 of 1988 which was subsequently transferred to the Family Court at Bombay. The petitioner therein who is the husband had sought a decree of divorce from his wife Jyoti whom he had married according to Hindu vedic rites at Bombay on 3-9-1987. The petitioner had set out a series of incidents on the basis of which he had contended that the respondent-wife had treated him with a degree of cruelty during the period when the parties lived together that would justify the dissolution of the marriage under section 13 (1) of the Hindu Marriage Act. The learned Judge of the Family Court has culled out the various acts or grounds on the basis of which the dissolution of the marriage had been prayed for and these are reproduced below though the quality of language and expressions used are far from happy :