Court rejects wife’s transfer request, says convenience alone cannot shift matrimonial case

NEW DELHI: The Punjab and Haryana high court has rejected a woman's plea seeking transfer of a matrimonial case, observing that a spouse who is professionally active cannot simply claim that she is unable to travel for about three hours to attend court proceedings, as per a report by LiveLaw.Justice Nidhi Gupta dismissed the petition for transfer filed by the wife, who sought shifting of the divorce proceedings from Amritsar to Hoshiarpur on grounds of inconvenience.The court ordered that transfer of cases cannot be granted just on the basis of convenience claims without proper justification.The matter arose from a divorce case filed by the husband where proceedings were pending before a court in Amritsar. The wife approached the high court requesting the case to be transferred to Hoshiarpur, citing difficulty in travelling.She also argued that attending proceedings at the current venue was inconvenient and sought relief from the high court.While considering the plea, the high court looked at the circumstances of the parties, including the wife's professional status. The court noted that the petitioner was engaged in professional activities and did not find sufficient facts to accept the argument that she was incapable of travelling for the court proceedings.The bench observed that while courts do consider the convenience of parties, particularly in matrimonial disputes, such requests cannot be allowed automatically. A transfer requires valid and convincing reasons.The high court emphasised that transfer jurisdiction has to be exercised carefully and cannot become a routine measure whenever one party finds the existing court location inconvenient.Finding no strong ground for shifting the case, the Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed the wife's transfer petition and allowed the proceedings to continue before the court in Amritsar.