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Shabnam Khan vs. Sarfraz Ansari

Civil Miscellaneous (Main) Petition · 2026:DHC:8115Decided 21 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
CM(M) 69/2024CNR: DLHC010583102023
Justice Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar

Background

In a pending Muslim-law divorce case, the respondent-husband (a practicing advocate) failed to file his written statement (defence) on time and his defence was struck off. He later applied, 174 days late, to have the delay condoned and his written statement accepted, which the Family Court allowed on payment of Rs. 3,000 costs. The petitioner-wife challenged this before the High Court, arguing such a long delay should not have been excused.

Decision Breakdown

The High Court explained that its supervisory power under Article 227 of the Constitution is narrow: it cannot act like a regular appeal court re-weighing the trial court's discretion. It found the Family Court had not condoned the delay automatically or without thought: it had specifically noted the husband, despite being a lawyer, had failed to stay vigilant, but balanced this against the fact that divorce cases deserve to be decided on their merits with both sides heard, and it had imposed costs to compensate for the delay. Since the Family Court's approach was reasoned and not arbitrary, the High Court declined to interfere and dismissed the petition.

Lesson Learnt

In family/matrimonial cases, courts tend to favour resolving disputes on their actual merits over strict procedural timelines, and a delay in filing a defence can be excused (usually with a cost penalty) rather than automatically shutting a party out of the case altogether.

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