The Uttarakhand High Court imposed costs on a husband recently, for misleading his wife and obtaining her signatures on the summons while divorce proceedings were going on.

The bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Ramesh Chandra Khulbe was dealing with an appeal challenging the order passed by the Family Court, where it allowed the application filed by the wife under Section 5 of the Limitation Act as well as a second application under Order 9 Rule 13 of the CPC, setting aside the ex-parte divorce decree obtained by the husband against the respondent.

In this case, the appellant/husband filed the divorce petition under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act on the ground of cruelty against the respondent wife.

As per the record, the wife continued to reside with the appellant even during the pendency of the divorce proceedings under the same roof.

In the divorce proceedings, the respondent-wife was treated as served with the summons on the basis of the Process Server’s report which showed acknowledgement of the summons by her, in her own hand. The ex-parte divorce decree came to be passed by the Family Court.

The court observed that “If he had to obtain divorce, he should have fairly and squarely separated from his wife before filing the divorce petition, and he should not have been living with her. However, he continued to live with her as her husband even after filing of the divorce petition, and obtained the ex-parte divorce.”

High Court stated that “the husband misled his wife into and contrived to obtain her signatures on the summons and get the Process Server’s report to show that she had been served in the divorce proceedings, while she continued to live with the appellant as his wife in complete ignorance of the said developments. If there was any truth in the case of the husband, he would have produced his children to support his plea that he was not residing with the respondent as her husband throughout the proceedings, and even after obtaining the ex-parte divorce decree.”

In view of the above, the bench dismissed the appeal and directed the appellant- husband to pay Rs. 50,000/- to the respondent-wife, and the remaining Rs.50,000/- to deposit with the State Legal Services Authority within four weeks.

Case Title: Mahendra Prasad Dwivedi v. Lajji Devi