Wife Facing 400-Km Journey Wins Transfer Of Husband’s Family Suit From Surat To Jasdan: Gujarat HC

The applicant sought transfer under Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC), of Family Suit No. 937 of 2026 from the Family Court at Surat to the concerned Court at Jasdan, District Rajkot.

She submitted that she resided at Jasdan, that the distance from Surat was about 400 kilometres, and that attending the Surat proceedings would cause hardship.

She also had a maintenance application under Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, pending before the Family Court at Jasdan.

The respondent was served but did not appear, and the applicant’s averments remained uncontroverted.

Section 24 CPC empowers the High Court to transfer a proceeding where transfer is appropriate in the interests of justice.

The Court cited Smita 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 authorities on transfer of matrimonial proceedings. The judgment does not set out the specific propositions drawn from those precedents.

The Court accepted that the applicant lived at Jasdan and that travelling approximately 400 kilometres to attend proceedings at Surat would cause her greater inconvenience than it would cause the respondent.

The respondent’s failure to appear meant that these factual assertions remained uncontroverted. Having regard to the cited Supreme Court authorities and the applicant’s pending maintenance proceedings at Jasdan, the Court found transfer appropriate.

It requested that the transferred suit and the applicant’s pending maintenance proceedings be heard by the same Court, and stated that any request for a common hearing date could be considered sympathetically.

The Rule was made absolute.