Family Court Orders Granting/Refusing/Modifying/Vacating Interim Injunctions Appealable, Writ Petition Under Art. 227 Not Maintainable: Allahabad HC [Read Order]

It is clear that the order granting or refusing injunction or modifying or vacating injunction passed by the family court would not be purely 'interlocutory order' in nature and would be an 'intermediate order' with finality attached, and would, therefore, be appealable under Section 19(1) of the Act of 1984, the Court said.

The Allahabad High Court has held that writ petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India challenging the order of the family court granting or refusing interim injunction or modifying or vacating the same, would not be maintainable and such order would be appealable under Section 19(1) of the Family Courts Act, 1984.

In this case, the wife’s application seeking to vacate the injunction passed against her was allowed and the family court had recalled its earlier order granting an injunction. The husband approached the high court by filing a petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India.

When the maintainability of such a petition was challenged, it was argued on behalf of the petitioner that since appeal under Section 19 of the Family Courts, 1984 does not lie against the 'interlocutory order' therefore, present petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India would be maintainable.

Referring to various provisions of the Act and case laws, Justice Vivek Kumar Birla observed that such orders would fall within the category of 'intermediate orders' to which finality is attached, to subject matter of injunction application or say, finality is attached to a particular stage of proceedings and therefore, would be appealable under Section 19(1) of the Family Courts Act.

“It is not in dispute that insofar as the property, which is covered or is subject matter of the order, whereby interim injunction order is either granted or refused or modified or vacated would become final between the parties and thus, this order becomes final in nature between the parties and till the disposal of the proceedings pending before the family court, their stand on the subject matter of such order cannot be changed unless, interfered by the higher court either way,” the court said.

“It is clear that the order granting or refusing injunction or modifying or vacating injunction passed by the family court would not be purely 'interlocutory order' in nature and would be an 'intermediate order' with finality attached, and would, therefore, be appealable under Section 19(1) of the Act of 1984,” the court said.