The Uttarakhand High Court recently fined a husband for misleading his wife to obtain her signatures on divorce summons during ongoing divorce proceedings. The bench, comprising Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Ramesh Chandra Khulbe, addressed an appeal against a Family Court order that allowed the wife’s application under Section 5 of the Limitation Act and a second application under Order 9 Rule 13 of the CPC, setting aside the ex-parte divorce decree obtained by the husband.
In this case, the husband filed a divorce petition under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, citing cruelty. Despite the ongoing divorce proceedings, the wife continued to live with him under the same roof.
The divorce proceedings recorded that the wife acknowledged the summons through the Process Server’s report, leading to an ex-parte divorce decree by the Family Court. However, the High Court found that the husband misled his wife into signing the summons while they were still living together, and she was unaware of the divorce developments.
The court stated that the husband should have separated from his wife before filing the divorce petition and not continued living with her. The court noted that if the husband’s claims were true, he should have produced evidence, such as his children’s testimony, to support his claim that he was not residing with his wife during the proceedings.
The High Court dismissed the appeal, ordering the husband to pay Rs. 50,000 to his wife and deposit another Rs. 50,000 with the State Legal Services Authority within four weeks.
Case Title: Mahendra Prasad Dwivedi v. Lajji Devi
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