MUMBAI: Not being truthful while explaining a delay in challenging her divorce has cost a woman dear in the
The judge set aside a family court order refusing to condone the delay, but said it would be subject to "payment of compensatory costs by the wife to the husband in view of her initial false case". The HC said if Seema paid the amount within 14 days, her plea against the divorce would be heard by the family court. "If the costs are not paid, the petition will stand dismissed and the decree of divorce will be confirmed," Justice Dalvi added.
The court said the manner in which the family court dealt with the case, giving it an elaborate hearing, was "incorrect".
"An application for condoning the delay, whether of 10 or 14 days, does not deserve evidence to be led, issues to be framed, precedents to be considered, reasons to be given and judgment to be pronounced in the detailed manner that the (family court) judge has done, given the enormous arrears of petitions pending in the family court," the HC said.
Ajit had obtained an ex parte divorce from Seema in June 2007. She filed an application before the Bandra family court against the divorce order and urged the court to forgive the delay in filing the application as she came to know about the order only in June 2009. But the court, on the basis of evidence, found out that Seema would have been made aware of the divorce verdict as early as April 2009. The family court judge dismissed her application, following which Seema moved the HC.
The HC said that while the family court was right in holding that Seema's pleas were false, the procedure to decide an "innocuous" application seeking condoning of the delay was wrong. The HC reminded the family court judge to follow not only the letter of the law (family court act), but also its spirit.
Source: Bombay HC fines wife Rs 10k for lying in divorce case - The Times of India https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Bombay-HC-fines-wife-Rs-10k-for-lying-in-divorce-case/articleshow/7518189.cms#ixzz1EJ7b4nTD
