KIRANDEEP KAUR Vs. JAGSEER SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In view of resolution of the Bar, the lawyers have chosen not to appear in the Court. This petition is filed through legal aid counsel, as it is stated that the petitioner is not having any sufficient source of income to defend the litigation filed by the respondent-husband at Bathinda. Prayer in this petition is for transfer of the petition filed by the respondent-husband under Sec. 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, pending before the Family Court, Bathinda to the competent Court of jurisdiction at Faridkot.

(2.) It is stated in the petition that on account of matrimonial discord, the petitioner has filed a complaint under Ss. 12, 17, 18, 19(1) (d), 19(1)(e), 19(1)(f), 20, 21, 22 read with Sec. 23 of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 at Jaitu, District Faridkot. It is further stated that the petitioner is having a minor female child, who is living in her care and custody and she is facing difficulty to defend the case at Bathinda, as there is a distance of about 55 kms from the place of residence of the petitioner to Bathinda. In Sumita Singh Vs. Kumar Sanjay, 2002 SC 396 and Rajani Kishor Pardeshi Vs. Kishor Babulal Pardeshi, 2005(12) SCC 237, the Hon'ble Supreme Court observed that while deciding the transfer application, the Courts are required to give more weightage and consideration to the convenience of the female litigants and transfer of legal proceedings from one Court to another should ordinarily be allowed, taking into consideration their convenience and the Courts should desist from putting female litigants under undue hardships." Further, in N.C.V. Aishwarya Vs. A.S. Saravana Karthik Sha, 2022 Live Law (SC) 627, the Hon'ble Supreme Court held as under: - 'The cardinal principle for exercise of power under Sec. 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure is that the ends of justice should demand the transfer of the suit, appeal or other proceeding. In matrimonial matters, wherever Courts are called upon to consider the plea of transfer, the Courts have to take into consideration the economic soundness of both the parties, the social strata of the spouses and their behavioural pattern, their standard of life prior to the marriage and subsequent thereto and the circumstances of both the parties in eking out their livelihood and under whose protective umbrella they are seeking their sustenance to life. Given the prevailing socioeconomic paradigm in the Indian society, generally, it is the wife's convenience which must be looked at while considering transfer.

(3.) Further, when two or more proceedings are pending in different Courts between the same parties which raise common question of fact and law, and when the decisions in the cases are interdependent, it is desirable that they should be tried together by the same Judge so as to avoid multiplicity in trial of the same issues and conflict of decisions." It is well settled that while considering the transfer of a matrimonial dispute/case at the instance of the wife, the Court is to consider family condition of the wife, custody of the minor child, economic condition of the wife, her physical health and earning capacity of the husband and most important, convenience of the wife i.e. she cannot travel alone without assistance of a male member of her family, connectivity of the place to and fro from her place of residence as well as bearing of the litigation charges and travelling expenses.