The Telangana High Court recently ruled that even if the husband offers to pay conveyance charges for the wife to appear before the Family Court hearings, and if such an offer is made without bonafide then the court can order the case transferred to a Family court near the wife’s residence.
Accordingly, the Bench of Justice A Venkateshwara Reddy ruled that even though it’s settled that a wife can be compensated by her husband through conveyance charge payment, the case depends on facts and principles.
In the instant case, the petitioner had filed a plea u.s 24 of CPC for withdrawal and transfer a plea which is pending before Family Court, Hyderabad to Family Court, Karimnagar.
The petitioner was married to the respondent and also has a child. However, differences arose between the couple and she was allegedly driven out of her marital home and is living with her parents, later, the husband filed a plea for dissolution of marriage.
subsequently, The wife filed an application for transferring the present case to Karimnagar from Hyderabad stating that it’s inconvenient for her to travel 200 km for each hearing along with her child.
Another side, the husband’s counsel submitted that Karimnagar is only 145 km from the wife’s residence and the husband is ready to pay for the wife’s conveyance.
However, the Court noted that the wife is not gainfully employed and also that the husband has not been paying maintenance. In this context, the court opined that the husband’s offer to pay conveyance of wife doesn’t seem bonafide.
The court also referred to various case laws and opined that between the convenience of wife and husband, the wife’s convenience along with the minor child would prevail.
Therefore, the court found it appropriate to transfer the case to Family Court, Karimnagar as it is nearer to the wife’s current residence.
Title: Jonnagaddala Swathi vs L Karthika Chakravarthy
Case No.: Tr. CMP No.: 4/2022
