SC Emphasises Wife's Convenience While Considering Transfer Of Case

The Supreme Court, on July 18, allowed the appeal against an order of the High Court of Madras whereby the High Court had declined the plea of the appellant to transfer the cases from Vellore to Chennai.

Bench led by Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice JK Maheshwari, observed that given the prevailing socio-economic paradigm in the Indian society, generally, it was the wife’s convenience which must be looked at while considering transfer.

FACTS

The marriage between the appellant (wife) and the respondent (husband) was arranged and solemnized in the year 2020 at Vellore, in accordance with Hindu rituals and customs. It was the case of the respondent that the appellant started quarrelling and fighting with the respondent for petty things and refused to consummate the marriage. Thereafter, the respondent filed for annulment of their marriage before the family court.

The appellant, a resident of Chennai, had also filed two cases in Chennai. One of the cases was filed in the Family Court at Chennai against her husband for restitution of conjugal rights under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and another before the Family Court at Chennai for maintenance under Section 125 of the Cr.P.C. 

The appellant filed a petition under Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure before the High Court of Judicature at Madras for transfer of the case from family court in Vellore to family court in Chennai. The appellant claimed that she was only 21 years old, was unemployed and therefore totally dependent on her old parents. It is on the basis of these circumstances, the appellant submitted that cases in Vellore be transferred to Chennai. The High Court, however, dismissed the petition.

DECISION

The Apex Court, while referring to Section 24 of the CPC, observed that, “The cardinal principle for exercise of power under Section 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,” the bench noted.

Section 24 of the CPC, states that High Court and the District Court can be approached by way of an application to transfer any suit, appeal or other proceeding pending before it for trial or disposal to any Court subordinate to it and competent to try or dispose of the same.

It was further observed by the Court that when two or more proceedings were pending in different Courts between the same parties which raised 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.

The Court, hence, set aside the order of the Madras High Court and transferred all pending matters from jurisdictional family court in Vellore to jurisdictional family court in Chennai.