JUDGMENT :

J.J. Munir, J.

1. This is a transfer application on behalf of the wife under Section 24 C.P.C., seeking transfer of Case No. 1326 of 2019, Ashutosh Agrawal vs. Shakshi Agrawal, under Section 12 (1)(b) and (c) read with Section 5 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 from the Principal Judge, Family Court, Gautam Budh Nagar to the Principal Judge, Family Court, Allahabad.

2. Parties have exchanged affidavits and the matter was heard elaborately on 22.09.2021, when the judgment was reserved.

3. Heard Mr. Pankaj Kumar Ojha, learned counsel for the applicant and Ms. Shreya Gupta, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the opposite party.

4. The applicant and the opposite party are an estranged couple. They were married according to Hindu rites on June the 8th, 2019 at NOIDA, District Gautam Budh Nagar. The applicant stayed with the opposite party in their matrimonial home at Gautam Budh Nagar, but complaints of cruelty, including physical violence, appeared early into the marriage. It appears that the opposite party is employed as a Senior Manager in the Human Resource Development, Department of Honda Car India Limited. He is said to draw a salary of Rs. 90,000/- per month. The applicant's father-in-law is also claimed to be gainfully employed. There are allegations also about dowry demand and torture in order to extract more dowry. It is not the province of this Court to go into those allegations, but whatever has transpired between the applicant and the opposite party, their marriage has run into rough weather.

5. The Opposite Party instituted a petition in the Family Court, Gautam Budh Nagar, under Section 12(1)(b) and (c) read with Section 5 of the Hindu Marriage Act, seeking a decree for annulment on the ground that the Applicant was of unsound mind, a condition that her family knew but misrepresented, practicing fraud and deception to induce the opposite party into marrying the Applicant. This petition was registered on the file of the Principal Jude, Family Court, Gautam Budh Nagar as Case No. 1326 of 2019. It is this petition that the Applicant seeks to be transferred from Gautam Budh Nagar to the Family Court at Allahabad.

6. The grounds urged to seek transfer are that there is a case instituted by the wife at Prayagraj under Section 125 Cr.P.C. being Case No. 232 of 2020, besides another under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 that is pending before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Court No. 7, Allahabad, numbered as Case No. 1800 of 2020. Details of these cases are set out in paragraph nos. 17 and 18 of the affidavit filed in support of the transfer application.

7. The ground culled out on this score is that since two cases are already pending inter partes before the Courts at Allahabad, it would be convenient if the husband's petition for annulment is also transferred from Gautam Budh Nagar to the Family Court at Allahabad, where the parties can request the Court/Courts concerned to fix a uniform date. It is pointed out that the applicant stays at Prayagraj after her estrangement, and the further ground is that she is a woman and unemployed, who cannot travel by herself from Allahabad to Gautam Budh Nagar on each date fixed in the petition there. If she is compelled to do that, her defence will be pre-judicially affected. It is also indicated, amongst the adversity of her circumstances that render it difficult for her to travel from Prayagraj to Gauam Budh Nagar, that her father is an old man, who has retired from service. He suffers from old age ailments. She has no one to travel with or escort her on every date from Prayagraj to Gautam Budh Nagar. It is also averred in paragraph no. 26 of the affidavit filed in support of this transfer application that the applicant has apprehensions about her safety, in the event she were compelled to attend at Gautam Budh Nagar, because the husband-opposite party and his family members are politically well connected. Her life would be in d