Leo (abcd) 04 July 2012

Two divorce cases in one family court

Hello Expert Lawyers,

I am hoping to receive some valuable advise on this curious yet different incident happened to me. I am an NRI and currently fighting marriage nullity case against my wife on a marriage which lasted for only 5 days and never consummated. I had filed the nullity case in May 2011 in our local family court at Bhopal. Since than we tried to serve the notice to my wife who lives in Bangalore until November 2011, but they never accepted the notice or responded to our emails. Therefore, the court allowed us to publish the notice in one local and one national news paper, which we did in November 2011. In December 2011 my wife put a transfer petition to Supreme Court on the basis of being women and incapability of travelling, which she was granted in February 2012. The nullity case was then transferred to Bangalore Family Court and is now called for hearing.

We have very recently received another notice from Bangalore Family Court stating that my wife had also filed a divorce petition in the court at Bangalore in December 2011 amid knowing she has yet to respond to the nullity case filed by us and transferred to Bangalore on their own request.

My questions are:

- is it legal to file a divorce case in a court when you are already a respondent to similar nature of case and which you are willingly delaying?

- Would this not be called as a cheating to Supreme Court of India? i.e. requesting them to transfer the case on women ground without citing the information of this case in the Supreme Court proceedings?

- Is it possible to dissolve this case (filed by wife) on application citing reference to the long pending nullity case which was recently transferred to Bangalore?

This may look me asking too many questions but any guidance is greatly appreciated.

Regards

Leo

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4 Replies

Adv.R.P.Chugh (Advocate/Legal Consultant (rpchughadvocatesupremecourt@hotmail.com)) 04 July 2012

Dear Leo,

1. It is legal to file for a divorce when proceedings for annulment are pending, there is no bar as to that.

2. This is concealment of facts, but it is not so material so as to entail a dismissal.

3. SC these days is too pro-women as far as transfer petitions are concerned, matters are being stayed and transferred as a matter of course.

4. If your wife is up for a divorce try convincing her for an MCD.

Feel free to talk !

1 Like

Adv.R.P.Chugh (Advocate/Legal Consultant (rpchughadvocatesupremecourt@hotmail.com)) 04 July 2012

Dear Leo,

1. It is legal to file for a divorce when proceedings for annulment are pending, there is no bar as to that.

2. This is concealment of facts, but it is not so material so as to entail a dismissal.

3. SC these days is too pro-women as far as transfer petitions are concerned, matters are being stayed and transferred as a matter of course.

4. If your wife is up for a divorce try convincing her for an MCD.

Feel free to talk !

1 Like

Tajobsindia (Senior Partner ) 04 July 2012

@ Author,

1. What she has done is ‘transferred your case” to her jurisdiction showing what she has to show before SC and SC did what they usually do on sari, sindoor and glycerin cause of action inspite of their earlier observation in ref. Anindita Das v Srijit Das, (2006) 9 SCC 197 Held – “that at one stage the Supreme Court was showing leniency to the ladies but since then it has been found that large number of transfer petitions are filed by women taking advantage of the leniency shown by the Supreme Court. Therefore, the leniency of the Supreme Court was being misused by the women. As such, it was now required to consider each petition on its merit”.
2. Your case is based on “nullity due to non-consummation” - right?
3. Well, she has a 'right' to file divorce choosing her set of “grounds” in her jurisdiction and your case has no bearing when she filed her case in her jurisdiction.
4. Now both parties have "respective rights" to file for divorce. Both cases goes in parallel due to peculiarity (grounds wise).

Ideally "if grounds" are same then one case should be dismissed to save time and cost of Court but since it is not clear from your query I will rest my observation on above paras including parting one for the time being unless some bolt out of the blue makes me change my thus say.

[Off the material facts there is a fitting quote about such metro wives;

”Curiosity killed the cat,” an @ Author remarked, his dark internet eyes unreadable.
Replier rolled his eyes and asks “Why did everyone say that about her?”
People always forget the rest of the saying, about her complains.
“And satisfaction brought it back”
So she is reeling under some SATISFACTION allow it please for the time being! J]

Leo (abcd) 04 July 2012

Dear Sir,

Many thanks for your reply.

Yes, the nullity case from us is based upon non consummation, mental cruelty, fraud and conspiracy, however the divorce case from my so called wife is mere scriptted and a non evident submission. The grounds seem to be the most famous and well proven domestic violence, dowry demand etc. I am not sure how they identified so much in all 5 days she stayed with me and 10 in total at my place with parents.

Having said, I still feel the judiciary system has been ruling on gender biasness, which and as you suggested, is evident at SC level as well.

Regards

Leo