MILLI Vs. MUKESH KUMAR

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, 1955 (for short "the Act") from Jagadhari to Amritsar.

(2.) COUNSEL for the petitioner by referring to the averments made in the petition submitted that after being turned out of matrimonial home, the petitioner is living in her parents house at Amritsar and one petition against the respondent is also pending at Amritsar. The respondent has, however, filed a petition under Section 9 of the Act against the petitioner at Jagadhari. The counsel further submitted that the petitioner being a poor lady, having no independent source of income is experiencing a lot of inconvenience while visiting Jagadhari, which is at a distance of about 300 Kms. from Amritsar, to attend the proceedings in the petition filed by the respondent and, therefore, her prayer for transfer of the said petition deserves to be accepted.

(3.) I have heard learned counsel for the petitioner and have gone through the record. Question of transfer of matrimonial proceedings in almost similar circumstances came for consideration earlier as well before this Court in a number of cases and in all those cases, it was solely the convenience of the wife that was given due weightage for ordering transfer of the proceedings at or near the place where the wife was residing. A few judgments deserve to be noticed here to fortify the prayer made in this petition. In Veena alias Arti v. Pawan Kumar, 1998(1) RCR(Civil) 558 (P&H) : 1998(1) M.L.J. 316, the proceedings under Section 9 of the Act filed by the husband at Sultanpur Lodhi were ordered to be transferred to Amritsar by this Court. In Smt. Sonia v. Rajnish Kumar Arora, 1997(2) RCR(Civil) 361 (P&H) : 1998(1) M.L.J. 37, this Court ordered transfer of petition under Section 9 of the Act from Ludhiana to Amritsar. On yet another occasion, recently in Suman v. Gopal, 2003(4) RCR(Civil) 26, M.M. Kumar, J. having regard to the observations of the Supreme Court in Sumita Singh v. Kumar Sanjay and another, A.I.R. 2002 SC 396 and Neelam Kanwar v. Devinder Singh Kanwar, 2001(1) M.L.J. 509 (S.C.), ordered the transfer of matrimonial proceedings from Gurgaon to Faridabad. The observations made in all these cases are not being reproduced to avoid unnecessary burdening this order, but the sole factor that has been kept in mind while ordering transfer is that it is the convenience of the wife which is of paramount consideration. The grounds for transfer as set out in the present petition are almost similar to those as in the above judicial precedents. There is no opposition to the prayer made in the petition, as neither the respondent has appeared in Court nor any reply has been filed to controvert the submissions made in the petition. The averments made in the petition are duly supported by an affidavit of the petitioner.