The court must consider each transfer petition on its own merit and balance the convenience and inconvenience of the parties. The misuse of leniency by women in seeking transfers was highlighted.

ORDER :

1. Applicant/wife has filed the present petition under section 24 of the CPC seeking transfer of matrimonial case No.1356/2019 from Family Court, Indore to Family Court, Bhopal.

2. Applicant and respondent are husband and wife by virtue of their marriage held on 21.11.2017 at Bhopal under the Hindu customs and rituals. After the marriage she started living with the respondent at Indore. She lived along with him at Indore up to 24.02.2018 and thereafter went to Bhopal and started living along with her parents. She filed a complaint under sections 12, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 22 of the Domestic Violence Act before the JMFC, Bhopal and also filed an application under section 125 of the Cr.P.C seeking maintenance from the respondent. Vide order dated 16.09.2017 learned Family Court, Bhopal has awarded maintenance to the applicant but she has not filed the complete copy of the said order. She has also not filed the complete copy of the complaint filed under sections 12, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 22 of the Domestic Violence Act, therefore, it is very difficult to gather the complete facts out of it.

3. Respondent filed a petition under section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act seeking dissolution of the marriage before the Family Court, Indore. Vide order dated 09.09.2019 the Family Court has issued a summons to the present applicant for her appearance before the Court on 03.10.2019. The applicant instead of appearing before the Family Court, Indore filed the present petition on 04.10.2019 seeking transfer of the case from Family Court, Indore to Family Court, Bhopal. Vide order dated 11.11.2019 this Court has stayed the further proceedings while issuing notice to the respondent. This case came up for hearing on 11.11.2019 and even today the present status of both the proceedings pending at Bhopal has not been disclosed.

4. Shri Manish Yadav, learned counsel for the applicant submits that the father of the applicant is a pensioner and he cannot travel along with his daughter on each and every date of hearing from Bhopal to Indore which has a distance of 200 kms. The respondent is already attending the proceeding before the Court at Bhopal, therefore, the present case be also transferred to Bhopal.

5. Shri Jain, learned counsel for the respondent submits that the present petition is pre-mature. The applicant ought to have appeared before the Family Court, Indore and participated in the conciliation proceedings, however, she approached this Court immediately after receipt of summons issued by the Family Court, Indore. Before travelling from Bhopal to Indore she cannot anticipate the personal difficulties. In various cases co-ordinate bench of this Court has dismissed similar type of petitions on the ground that at the most the wife can claim travelling expenses along with the maintenance amount. In each and every case only the convenience of the wife is not liable to be seen. In support of his contention he has placed reliance over the judgments of the Apex Court as well as this Court in the case Anindita Das vs. Srijit Das (2006) 9 SCC 197, Deepa Kuttapan vs. Anil Rajan 2007 (2) MPLJ 377, Punam vs. Putsh 2001 (I) MPWN SN 191 & Rekha (smt.) vs. Virendra 2009 (II MPWN 43.

6. It is correct that immediately after receipt of the summons the applicant has approached this Court by way of this petition anticipating the problems which may come in her way in future. The distance between Bhopal and Indore is only 200 kms. and are well connected by road as well as rail. The applicant/wife is not required to attend the Court on each and every date of hearing. She can be represented by her counsel and can also apply for exemption from personal appearance. Apart from that, the proceedings under section 125 Cr.P.C and the Domestic Violence Act are temporary in nature and are liable to be concluded expeditiously and after conclusion of those proceedings pending at Bhopal the respondent/husband is not required to appear the Court at Bhopal, therefore, on that ground