Wife Caring For 2.5-Year-Old Gets Husband’s Rajkot Family Suit Transferred To Surat Over 265-km Distance: Gujarat HC

The wife applied under Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC), to transfer Family Suit No. 737 of 2025 from the Family Court, Rajkot, to the Family Court, Surat.

She was residing with her minor child at her parental home in Surat, approximately 265 km from Rajkot, and submitted that the husband was not paying maintenance, making travel to Rajkot a hardship.

The husband was served but did not appear; the application’s averments therefore remained uncontroverted.

Section 24 CPC empowers the High Court to transfer proceedings between competent courts. In exercising that discretion in matrimonial proceedings, the Court considered the applicant-wife’s convenience and the comparative hardship to the parties.

It referred to Sumita Singh v. Kumar Sanjay, AIR 2002 SC 396; N.C.V. Aishwarya v. A.S. Saravana Karthik Sha, 2022 SCC OnLine SC 1199; and Ruchi Majoo v. Sanjeev Majoo, (2011) 6 SCC 479, as relevant Supreme Court authorities.

The Court accepted the uncontroverted account that the wife lived in Surat with a child aged about two and a half years, while the pending proceeding was in Rajkot, approximately 265 km away.

It found that requiring her to attend the Rajkot proceedings would cause substantial hardship and inconvenience, and concluded that the comparative inconvenience to her outweighed that to the husband. Applying its discretion under Section 24 CPC and considering the cited precedents, the Court favoured transfer.

The husband may request to join proceedings by video conferencing or online mode, which the receiving court may consider unless his physical presence is required at a particular stage.