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Ashi Kumar v. Aseem Agarwal

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 1377Decided 16 Dec 2019
Civil Appeal No. 9453 of 2019
Justice A.M. Khanwilkar · Justice Dinesh Maheshwari

Background

In a matrimonial case pending before the Family Court, Patiala House since 2011, the husband (respondent) had given an undertaking in 2014 to produce certain documents, including a New Zealand divorce decree and judgment. He only partially complied, and when the Family Court in December 2018 directed him to produce the remaining documents, he instead filed a writ petition before the Delhi High Court challenging that order, without disclosing his earlier undertaking. The High Court entertained the writ petition and stayed the long-pending Family Court trial, prompting the wife (appellant) to approach the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that a party who has given a solemn undertaking to a court is bound by it unless formally absolved by that same court, and the High Court should not have entertained a writ petition, let alone stayed a trial pending since 2011, while ignoring that unperformed undertaking. Since this crucial fact was not addressed in the High Court's judgment, that judgment could not be sustained. The Court set aside the High Court's order, dismissed the respondent's writ petition, and disposed of the appeal, while giving the respondent liberty to apply to the Family Court itself either to be relieved of the undertaking, to seek more time, or to produce the documents, leaving the Family Court free to proceed with the trial on its own merits.

Lesson Learnt

An undertaking given to a court is a serious, binding commitment: a litigant cannot sidestep it by approaching a different, higher court for relief while leaving the undertaking unfulfilled; only the court that received the undertaking can relieve a party of it.

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

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