GEETA Vs. RAJINDER

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 Ferozepur to Amritsar.

(2.) IN this petition, the prayer for transfer of the aforesaid petition has been made on the ground that a divorce petition filed by the petitioner-wife against the respondent-husband is pending at Amritsar whereas a petition under Section 9 of the Act filed by the respondent is pending at Ferozepur. The petitioner is a young lady and she is finding it very difficult to travel all alone to Ferozepur to contest the proceedings in the petition under Section 9 which requires at least three-hour journey besides huge expenses, as in view of threats extended earlier to her, she has a reasonable apprehension in her mind of being physically harmed or even done to death by or at the instance of the respondent. Not only this, she has one minor child with her who needs her care and protection and cannot be left at the mercy of others whenever the petitioner has to go to Ferozepur to attend the proceedings.

(3.) I have heard learned counsel for the parties and have gone through the record. Question of transfer of matrimonial proceedings in almost similar circumstances came up 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) MLJ 316, the proceedings under Section 9 of the Act filed by the husband at Sulanpur 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) MLJ 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, AIR 2002 SC 396 and Neelam Kanwar v. Devinder Singh Kanwar, 2001(1) MLJ 509 (SC) 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.