Sushree Mohanty
While hearing a matrimonial dispute, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has stated that the option to pick the court for settling of dispute concerning matrimonial issues lies with the wife and requested for the exchange of a case from Bhiwani family court to Mohali. The single bench judge of Justice Arun Monga was hearing the transfer supplication filed by the wife, when he said:
“Only in situations where the husband is living outside India, the husband can establish procedures where he is living. Though, the wife can, regardless, record a request in a competent court, inside whose limits she is living. The said right has been solely presented on a wife in order to grant her convenience in matter related to matrimonial disputes.”
In her supplication, the wife had looked for transferring the 2020 case from Bhiwani to Mohali, where she last lived with her husband. The husband, who lives in the United States, had contended that his wife had adequate methods and could undoubtedly appear personally before the Bhiwani court. The wife asserted that she was living with her parents in Mohali, which was 250 km away from Bhiwani and added that her father was a heart patient and as both her siblings are already married and living somewhere else, there was nobody who can accompany her to the court for hearings.
During the proceeding, the court took notice of the fact that the ethos as envisaged under Article 51-An of the Indian Constitution imposes a major obligation on each Indian resident to uphold and maintain the dignity of the woman. The Court additionally observed that as according to Article 15 (3), power was additionally given to the state to make special arrangements for women and children in such matters. It further said that it was maybe in this spirit that an amendment was embedded in 2003 in the
Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
