"Traveling At Odd Hours Of Day Is A Physical Hardship For Wife": Calcutta High Court Transfers Matrimonial Case

Following the principle of "showing leniency towards the wife", the Calcutta High Court recently allowed a wife's plea to transfer Matrimonial Suit from the Court of Additional District Judge, F.T.C., Coochbehar to the Court of District Judge, Darjeeling.

The bench of Justice Ananda Kumar Mukherjee took into account the fact that the Husband had filed a suit for divorce directly without making any attempts to restore the marital relationship, and therefore, the Court opined that the wife cannot be put to such inconvenience by forcing her to travel at odd hours of the day, as the same would amount to a physical hardship for her.

In this case, the husband has filed a Matrimonial Suit against the petitioner/wife for divorce on the ground of cruelty. The wife is presently residing with her widow mother at Siliguri which is at a distance of more than 100 kilometers from Coochbehar.

The Court observed that the husband is having some type of employment but the petitioner/wife is a housewife having no means of earning to bear the financial burden to travel such a long distance from Siliguri to Coochbehar.

The case in brief

Essentially, the petitioner/wife had preferred the revisional application under Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure praying for transfer of Matrimonial Suit pending before the Additional District Judge, Fast Track Court, Coochbehar to any other Court of Additional District Judge at Siliguri.

It was the case of the petitioner/wife that her marriage with the respondent/opposite party (Husband) was solemnized on March 11, 2020, and they stayed together as husband and wife in the house of the opposite party at Coochbehar only for 15 days.

It was her further case that her husband had filed the Matrimonial suit under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 against the petitioner/wife praying for a decree of divorce as a counterblast of the F.I.R. lodged by her. 

She also submitted before the Court that since her relationship with her husband is strained, therefore, she feels insecure to travel to Coochbehar Court for the purpose of taking part in the proceedings.

On the other hand, the Husband submitted that his wife had voluntarily left the matrimonial home within 15 days of the marriage and the suit for divorce had been filed on the ground of cruelty.

Regarding the transfer of the case, it was contended that there is a conveyance facility to conveniently travel to Coochbehar and the petitioner has no cogent ground for preferring this revisional application and the same is liable to be dismissed.

Consequently, taking into account the arguments advanced by both sides, the Court found it appropriate to transfer the Matrimonial Suit from the Court of Additional District Judge, F.T.C., Coochbehar to the Court of District Judge, Darjeeling.

Accordingly, the revisional application was allowed. 

Advocate Sanjay Mazoomdar along with Advocate Sukanya Adhikary appeared for the Petitioner

Advocate Subhasish Mishra along with Advocate Swarup Das appeared for the Opposite Party

Case title - Smt. Sandipa Gupta (Bhowmick) @ Sandipa Bhowmick v. Sri Suraj Gupta

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Cal) 268

Click Here To Read/Download Order