KIRAN BALA Vs. RAM PHAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition under Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure for transfer of a petition under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act (for short "the Act"), filed by the respondent against the petitioner titled as "Ram Phal v. Kiran Bala" which is pending in the Court of Shri R.C. Gupta, District Judge, Karnal, to any other Court of competent jurisdiction at Ambala.

(2.) AS per the averments made in the petition, marriage of the petitioner with the respondent took place without the permission of petitioner's family. Nor even any member of petitioner's family was present at the time of marriage. The petitioner was hardly 15-1/2 years of age at the time of her marriage. The father of the petitioner got a case registered under Sections 4, 5, 6 and 19 of the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 against those who had conducted the marriage and the said case is pending trial at Ambala. The petitioner further alleges that another criminal case under Sections 363/365/366- A/376/120-B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code is also pending trial against the respondent and others in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ambala. The respondent as a counterblast to the above proceedings has filed a petition under Section 9 of the Act against the petitioner in the Court of District Judge, Karnal. The petitioner seeks transfer of the said petition to Ambala on the grounds that she is a young girl and belongs to a poor family and she has no source of income. She is unable to travel from Ambala to Karnal to attend the proceedings under Section 9 of the Act.

(3.) I have heard counsel for the parties and perused the record, I have also gone through the judgments cited by the counsel for the petitioner. In all these decisions all that has been observed in a single tone is that while considering the question of transfer of matrimonial proceedings, regard must be had to the convenience of the wife. In the said cases, the proceedings which were pending at very distant place and even in the Courts of a different State have been ordered to be transferred to or near the place where the wife was residing. Mere incorporation of observations made by the Supreme Court made in all of the aforesaid decisions would unnecessarily burden this order. However, the observations of the Supreme Court in Neelam Kanwar's case (supra) are being noticed as under :