In cases involving common questions of fact and law, and where the balance of convenience favors a joint trial, the court may order the transfer of a suit to another court for joint trial, particularly when serious allegations and counter-allegations are made in the pleadings, requiring the experience and responsible position of a District Judge to handle the case.

Judgement

JAGANNADHA DAS, C. J. :- This is an application for transfer of original suit No.588/50 from the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Balasore, to the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Cuttack, to be tried and disposed of along with original suit No.59/50 pending in the latter Court. For the sake of convenience, one may be called the Balasore suit and the other as the Cuttack suit. The Cuttack suit was filed on 18-8-1950, and the Balasore suit is said to have been filed somewhat later.

2. The trial of both the suits has been stayed by orders of this Court dated 5-11-51 and 13-2-52. It is stated that the trial in both the suits has not yet commenced.

3. It is necessary to state briefly the admitted facts and the allegations in each, in order to appreciate the grounds on which this application for the transfer of the Balasore suit to Cuttack and for the joint trial of both together has been made. The plaintiff in the Cuttack suit, Srimati Snehalata Dei is the wife of the defendant therein Sri Samanta Radha Prasanna Das. Her suit is one for maintenance against her husband with a charge therefore on his properties and for provision of a house in Cuttack for her separate residence. Sri Samanta Radha Prasanna Das is a rich person owning considerable properties in the districts of Balasore, Cuttack, and Puri having his ordinary residence at Balasore. Srimati Snehalata Dei was married to him in the year 1929, and bore him only two daughters the second of whom was born in the year 1933, and the first died in the year 1941.

Sri Samanta Radha Prasanna Das married also a second wife by name Srimati Sailarani in the year 1947. It is the case of the plaintiff in the Cuttack suit that since that second marriage her husband began to neglect her and her surviving daughter, and to illtreat her in various ways, and that he began to lead a debaucherous life with the elder sister of his second wife giving birth to an illegitimate child of suspicious parentage in the year 1947. She further alleges that though her daughter Srimati Santilata. Dei attained marriageable age, the defendant neglected her marriage and was indifferent to certain negotiations for a desirable match and that the ill-treatment and indignities offered to her and to her daughter by the second wife and her relations who had by then been brought over as part of the household of her husband, became intolerable, and that even the lives of herself and her daughter were in danger and that for the sake of safety, she was obliged to leave the family residence at Balasore.

She alleges that she accordingly came away to Cuttack on 13-4-50 for shelter in her fathers house. She therefore brings her suit for maintenance at the rate of Rs.1000/- a month and for provision of separate residence in a house of the defendant situated in Cuttack and for a charge on the plaint-schedule properties of her husband for the due payment of the maintenance to be decreed.

4. The Balasore suit is a suit brought by the husband Sri Samant Radha Prasanna Das. He brings the suit against his wife Srimati Snehalata Dei and his daughter Srimati Shantilata Dei, who are defendants 6 and 7 therein and as against five others. Defendants 3 and 4 are the father and brother of the plaintiffs wife by name Sri Radha Mohan Pattnaik and Sri Bhuban Mohan Pattnaik, respectively and defendants 1, 2 and 5 are three other persons by name Sri Puma Chandra Mohanty, Sri Bhawani Prasad Mohanty and Sri Sarat Chandra Parija respectively. Defendant 2 is said to have been married to the 7th defendant the daughter of the plaintiff under alleged circumstances which according to the plaintiff Sri Samant Radha Prasanna Das makes the marriage invalid. The 1st defendant is the father of the 2nd defendant, and the 5th defendant is the son-in-law of the 1st defendant.

The allegations on which the plaintiff in the Balasore suit has brought the suit as against all these persons impleading them together, as defendants, are that defendants 1 and 5 wer