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D. Raja Rajeswari v. R. Sathish Kumar

Transfer Petition (Civil) · 2021 INSC 556Decided 27 Sept 2021
Transfer Petition (Civil) No. 1634 of 2018
Justice Abhay S. Oka

Background

The petitioner (wife) and respondent (husband) had a child in 2016, after which multiple matrimonial proceedings sprang up in different cities: the husband filed for custody of the child and later for divorce, while the wife filed for restitution of conjugal rights. As a result, two proceedings were pending before the Family Court in Bengaluru and the husband's divorce petition was pending before the Family Court in Chennai, splitting related disputes between two different courts in two different states.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that it would serve the interests of both parties for all the related proceedings to be heard together by a single court, noting that the husband himself had first approached the Bengaluru Family Court for custody. It allowed the transfer petition and directed that the husband's divorce case (H.M.O.P. No. 4197 of 2017), then pending in Chennai, be transferred to the Family Court at Bengaluru, to be heard alongside the other pending matters involving the same parties by the same judge.

Lesson Learnt

When a married couple has multiple related court cases spread across different cities, the Supreme Court can consolidate them before one Family Court for convenience and to avoid conflicting or duplicated proceedings over the same family dispute.

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

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