Mumbai: The Bombay High Court recently stated that it is only the wife who has the choice of selecting the forum to file domestic violence proceedings. The court imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on a husband, to be paid to his estranged wife, while rejecting his plea to transfer a domestic violence case from a magistrate’s court to the family court where divorce proceedings are pending. The High Court noted that there are two other proceedings filed by the wife also pending before the magistrate, so the husband’s argument of a possibility of conflicting judgments being passed by the Judicial Magistrate First Class in Bandra and the family court lacks merit.Justice Rajesh Patil, in an Oct 6 order, mentioned that the matter was argued before him on three different dates for a considerable period of time. The wife’s counsel, Gayatri Gokhale, pressed for imposing costs on the husband for wasting judicial time, highlighting that many litigants are awaiting their turn.The husband filed an application before the High Court to transfer the domestic violence complaint against him to the Family Court at Bandra, Mumbai. The High Court noted that there were three proceedings before the magistrate’s courts filed by the wife, including one case where a chargesheet was already filed in a criminal complaint of cruelty to the wife under section 498A of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code and another for alleged perjury. The husband had filed for divorce before the family court.After hearing his counsel, V M Siram, the High Court order noted that the “husband’s only reason for seeking the transfer of one proceeding (Domestic Violence proceeding) out of three proceedings filed by the respondent-wife is that there should not be conflicting judgments and that the proceedings are at an initial stage.” The High Court, however, referred to Supreme Court rulings which stated that it is the convenience of the wife that has to be taken into consideration while dealing with the transfer proceeding, given the socio-economic paradigm in Indian society.The Supreme Court, in the 2022 ruling, stated, “wherever courts are called upon to consider the plea of transfer, the courts have to take into consideration the economic soundness of both parties, the social strata of the spouses and their behavioural pattern, their standard of life prior to the marriage and subsequent thereto, and the circumstances of both parties in eking out their livelihood and under whose protective umbrella they are seeking their sustenance to life.“Justice Patil referred to his earlier decision in another matter where he held that while the transfer of domestic violence proceedings to the family court is permissible, if the transfer proceeding is not bona fide, it can be rejected on a case-by-case basis. The High Court stated, “one has to also keep in mind who is coming to the court for the transfer of the proceedings, whether it is the wife or the husband or any other party. Since a choice is given to the aggrieved person under the Domestic Violence Act to choose the forum for reliefs…before the magistrate under Section 12 or to the civil court, family court, or criminal court under Section 26, such transfer if sought by a wife, considering the judgment of the Supreme Court… will have to be considered favourably.”
