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Amruta Ben Himanshu Kumar Shah v. Himanshu Kumar Pravinchandra Shah

Transfer Petition (Civil) · 2021 INSC 47Decided 29 Jan 2021
Transfer Petition (Civil) No. 2344 of 2019
Justice V. Ramasubramanian

Background

A wife sought transfer of her husband's restitution-of-conjugal-rights case, pending before the Family Court at Palanpur, Gujarat, to a court in Mumbai where she lived. She had made an identical request once before in 2016, which was dismissed without even issuing notice to the husband; this second petition was based on fresh circumstances: her mother's death leaving her without support for child-care during travel, rejection of her plea for travel expenses, and the Family Court striking off her evidence after she struggled to attend hearings. The husband opposed the transfer, pointing out the case was already at the verge of judgment after years of trial.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that dismissal of an earlier transfer petition does not bar a fresh one based on genuinely changed circumstances, but also found that transferring the case at this very late stage, arguments had already concluded once and the case was posted for judgment before the Supreme Court's stay intervened, would derail years of proceedings and was not appropriate. Instead of ordering a transfer, the Court crafted a middle path: it allowed the wife to apply to reopen and restore her evidence that had been struck off, directed the Family Court to take a lenient view and fix a firm date for her cross-examination, permitted her to be represented by counsel (or via video conferencing) on all other dates without needing to travel, and required the husband to pay her Rs. 10,000 towards travel and stay expenses whenever her physical presence was genuinely required.

Lesson Learnt

Courts can address a litigant's genuine hardship, such as the cost and difficulty of travelling to a distant court, through practical, tailored directions (video conferencing, reopening evidence, travel-expense orders) instead of transferring a case that is already close to conclusion, balancing fairness to one side against the disruption a transfer would cause to the other.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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