KAWALJIT KAUR Vs. SARABJIT SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) KAWALJIT Kaur petitioner was married to Sarabjit Singh on 4-S-1986. Unfortunately, the marriage was a disaster. Kawaljit Kaur instituted a petition for dissolution of marriage under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act on 9-5-1988. According to her, the respondent on coming to know of the institution of the petition filed an application under Section 9 of the Restitution of Conjugal rights in the Court of Sub-Judge 1st Class, Nawanshahr, District Jalandhar, on 27-5-1988. Through this petition under Section 22/24 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the petitioner seeks transfer of the proceedings under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act started by the respondent at Nawanshahr to the District Judge, Ambala. The main ground for transfer is that the petitioner has to undergo a lot of harassment to attend the Court at Nawanshahr. The petitioner filed a further affidavit dated May 31,1989 in which she stated that she went to Nawanshahr along with her mother Smt. Tripat Kaur on 2-8-1988 and again on 17-8-1988 to attend the date of hearing in her case and on both these occasions the respondent along with some other persons accosted them at bus stand Nawanshahr and held out threat if she persisted in carrying on her petition under Section 13 of the Act in the Ambala Court. The petitioner felt scared and stopped going to attend the Court and the proceedings were being attended with the help of the counsel through her mother. Thereafter, the present petition was moved. Reply was filed by the respondent specifically denying the averment that any threat was ever given to the petitioner. It was further stated that the petitioner never made any report to the police nor to the Court of any such threat having ever been given to her. Learned counsel for the respondent strenuously argued that in the absence of any ground having been made out it was not possible to transfer the petition from Nawanshahr to Ambala.

(2.) AFTER hearing the learned counsel for both the parties, I am of view that the proceedings under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act pending in the court of Sub-Judge, 1st Class, Nawanshahr should be transferred to the District Court Ambala so that the same can be dealt with and disposed of along with the petition instituted by the petitioner under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act.

(3.) ADMITTEDLY, the petition under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act was prior in time compared to the petition under Section 9 of the Act. It is a notorious fact that a lady requires some escort when she has to go to another town and in that sense the harassment caused to the petitioner is far greater as compared to the harassment caused to the respondent in coming to Ambala. The significant fact is that so far there is no prayer on the part of the husband to transfer the proceedings at Ambala to Nawanshahr. It follows that the husband, in any case, has to come to Ambala to defend the proceedings under Section 13 of the Act. There should be no difficulty if the proceedings under Section 9 of the Act are also dealt with by the Court at Ambala. For the reasons recorded above, it is directed that the petition under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act titled Sarabjit Singh v. Kawaljit Kaur pending in the Court of Sub-Judge, 1st Class, Nawanshahr, District Jalandhar, shall stand transferred to the Court of Shri K. C. Gupta, Additional District Judge, Ambala to enable him to deal with the said petition along with petition under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, title Kawaljit Kaur v. Sarabjit Singh fixed for 14-9-1989. Parties through their counsel are directed to appear in the transferee Court on 14-9-1989.