Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Family Court
Family Court
Principal Judge,
-The Family court, Bandra comprises of seven floors with a court room on each
floor.
-Two Marriage counselors are located on every floor next to the court room, 12
females and 2 males.
1) Judge
2) Bench clerk
4) Stenographer
5) Deposition writer
6) Process clerk
8) Court peon
9) Bailiff
10)Announcer
-Since the year 1990 every year on an average 3000 Petitions are being filed in
the Family Court.
-only in the family court, one can directly file a petition if they have sufficient
knowledge of the same.
-Muslim gents cannot file a suit in the family court, only females can.
-There is a “takrar peti” (complain box) placed on the entrance of the first floor.
Petitions
Act, 1956.
Act 1955.
Objectives
• To study the process and procedures of divorce, such as the interval between
marriage and the petition for divorce, the time taken for the decision of the
judicial court, etc.
• The main objective is to provide easy and speedy settlement relating to
matrimonial and family affair.
FIRST FLOOR:
(1) Lodging department:
Requirements:
Procedure:
• The normal procedure in the Family court is that after a petition is filed
by a party the same is presented before the Superintendent.
• The Petition is numbered by the Superintendent and it is then assigned to
a particular Court Room along with a lodging number.
• The Petition is then numbered, summons are prepared by the office of
the Family Court and then it is served upon the other party along with the
copy of the Petition.
• After a petition is filed, three dates are assigned to the parties for referring
the Marriage Counselor.
• First, the Marriage Counselor hears the grievances of the parties
individually. Then he/she hears both the parties together.
• The Marriage Counselor, after hearing both the parties, gives suggestions
to them to remove their differences and tries for reconciliation between
them
• If the parties agree to some solution by which they can reconcile, then
they are asked by the Marriage Counselor to write down the terms for
reconciliation and both the parties are made to sign the same.
• If no solution is found then the case goes to the court.
Under this both the husband and wife are given a time period of six
months to stay with each other.
Procedure:
2) Cashier
Cash department:
The cash department deals with all the cash related workings of the court. The
following are the different ways in which the cashier is used-
Maintenance
Section 18;
(1)A hindu wife, whether married before or after the commencement of this
Act, shall be entitled to be maintained after the death of her husband by her
father-in-law:
Provided and to the extent that she is unable to maintain herself out of her own
earnings or other property or where she has no property of her own, is unable to
obtain maintenance,--
(2) Any obligation under sub-section (1) shall not be enforceable if the
father-in-law has the means to do so from any coparcenary property in
this possession out of which the daughter-in-law has not obtained any
share, and any such obligation ceases on the remarriage of the daughter-
in-law
THIRD FLOOR:
There is one court room on the floor numbered Court Room 301. There are also
2 marriage counsellors on the floor. Several numerous advocates and their
clients wait in the lobby for either for their turn of hearing or just sit and discuss
their respective cases.
The Petition Writer named PrakashSawani sits at the entrance of the third floor
filing all petitions. He types all petitions on paper and answers queries regarding
petitions.
The notice board by his side has the list of cases and petition numbers they are
filed under. The list also has names of witnesses to different cases.
The most recent case is that of Narendra and TruptiMakal. The case was fought
in the court for about 2 years. Mrs. TruptiMakal had filed a petition under the
Maintenance Act. She claimed Rs.20,000 as alumni each month. After a span of
2 years the verdict was finally declared. Mrs.Makal won the case against her
husband. But the case also declared her an alumni of only Rs.3,500 a month.
Earlier, they had no formal divorce but lived separately for almost 3 years. After
filing of this case, they also seeked divorce. With the verdict declaring the
alumni, they were declared divorced and their marriage stood void.
The Rectification of cases takes place here. After a petition is filled, it is sent for
check and rectification, then to the marriage counselor. Both parties talk o the
counselor. Counsellors checks scope for settlement, otherwise the petition is
continued for regular trial.
FOURTH FLOOR:
The court on this floor is Court Room Number 401. The judge in this court is
Ms.M.J.Dhote.
The case currently fought is that of Mr. Anand and Mrs. SudhaKamble. They
have been living separately for almost 10 years now. They have two daughters
who are married. The wife, Mrs. SudhaKamble, has filed a petition against her
husband under the Adoption and Maintenance Act for maintenance money for
both her daughters’ wedding.
The dispute that follows is that both Mr. AnandKamble and Mrs. SudhaKamble
say that they respectively incurred the expenses. But Mrs. Sudha cannot
technically stand as claimer for daughters’ marriage expenses since both the
daughters are major and married. Had they been minor and unmarried, then the
mother could have claimed the maintenance.
The case has been continuing for the past 2 years. The sections applicable are
Sections 18 and 20.
Section 18 refers to the wife’s claim for maintenance. The wife can claim
maintenance for herself and her unmarried minor children. For minor children,
parents are representative.
Section 20 refers to the children’s rights. Minor children require their parents as
representatives. But major children do not require representatives to demand for
their maintenance. But majors do not require representatives. Thus, demand for
maintenance of major children is to be decided by the children themselves. The
parents cannot decide whether the major children want the maintenance or not.
It is supposed to be the children’s decision.
In the case of Mr. and Mrs. Kamble, the two daughters are married. They do not
want the maintenance amount. But their mother, Mrs. SudhaKamble, continues
to ask for maintenance on their behalf. She is not ready to step down on her
claims.
According to Section 20, the mother cannot claim maintenance for married
children. But Mrs. SudhaKamble still claims. The court has not given a
confirmed verdict. But according to Mr. AnandKamble’s lawyer, Mr. R. T.
Lalwani, the court verdict should be in their favour due to violation of Section
20.
FIFTH FLOOR:
The floor has several rooms. Namely:
The 2 marriage counsellors are Smt. S. S. Kapale and Smt. P. B. Jagtap, Smt. S.
S. Jagtap being the senior counselor and Smt. P. B. Jagtap being the junior
counselor.
They counsel clients after they file their petitions. They try for out of court
settlements. In the procedure of counseling, they begin with individual
counseling and then counsel the couple together. 50% of the times the case is
solved out of court with mutual understanding.
The Muskaan and Adolscent Guidance Center of Tata Institute of Social Studies
is a center for various books relating to children’s laws and other reference
books.
Court Room Number 501 is the 5th court in the building of Family Court.
The case currently being ought is a divorce case. The name of the client is
hidden on request. But she has been waiting for a divorce since 2009. Her
divorce petition was filed in March 2009. After that she has had about 1 hearing
a month. The verdict is still pending.
SIXTH FLOOR
It has two Departments.
The cases involving the divorce are handled on the sixth floor by the main
judge of the floor named Smt. V.V.Virkar.
The Pay and Establishment Department is a department all about staff. Here
from Judges to Class iv are paid their salaries. All the problems of the staff are
solved here. The State Government states the salary of the lawyers and the
judges. Mrs. Vagal is the head superintendent of the Pay and Establishment
Department. There are five people working under her.
SEVENTH FLOOR:
There are 15 people on the seventh floor including policeman. There is a
judge’s chamber and four counselor’s chambers. The cases related to divorce
and child support are dealed here. The highest position is held by the judge
named Shri. A.O.Kolte. The Judge holds the qualification of a Law Graduate.
• The first case is related with divorce petition, Mr. Dilip Meher is the petitioner
(the husband) of the case and the respondent is Mrs. Jay Meher. The advocate
leading the case is Sanjay Ambedker.
The husband use to work at a resort in Virar, earlier in fishing business. He used
to get a monthly salary of Rs. 2000. The wife has filed a case against her
husband for divorce and also to recover all her articles and belongings. She is
not able to adjust with the husband’s meager salary. The Judge asked that if the
husband’s salary is increased to Rs.3000 would she be able to adjust. The wife
replied in negative.
The wife says that she kept her ornaments in the cupboard and the keys of the
cupboard were with her.
The wife explains the reason behind her leaving the house. She says that she
was forced to leave the house of her husband, the petitioner due to financial
problem. The wife does not agree to adjust with her husband and wanted
divorce. When the wife visited the petitioners place with the advocate and
opened the cupboard the keys were found to be duplicated.
Since October 2003, the wife and the petitioner are residing separately. The
wife is not ready to reside or compromise with her petitioner husband.
The wife ultimately ends up concluding that “It is not true that I have claimed a
false contingent against my husband and all my claims are valid.”
The Judge finally gives his saying by telling the respondent that she, along with
her advocate should go to the petitioner’s house to collect the articles which
rightfully belongs to her. The next proceedings of the case are going to be after
two months.
• This case is related to dowry and is very complicated. Jitendra Gupta and
Surekha Gupta married in the year 2006. They stayed in a joint family which
comprises of three brothers. Jitendra Gupta is the youngest and works at
Jogeshwari in a service centre. Initially everything was going smooth in the
family but later on there were internal fights between the couple. The reason of
the internal fights were that the family had asked her to get a minimum of
75,000 as dowry or never come back. In Diwali 2006 it was Surekha’s first
Diwali after marriage but still she went to her parent’s house and never returned
back. She only resided for 4-5 months in her in-laws house. The reason for this
was dowry. The witnesses to this case were his elder brother Devendra Gupta
and his wife Sujata Gupta. “April 2007 a meeting was held to sort out the
matter. She refused to come home even though we went to get her 4 times. But
she dint come back. Petitioner informed me that respondent Surekha Gupta is
ready to come home but now the petitioner Jitendra Gupta doesn’t want her
back”. Courtesy Devendra Gupta. When the elder brother Devendra Gupta was
asked whether Surekha’s uncle and aunt visited them in December 2006 so sort
the matter he declined.
Sujata Devendra Gupta said that “All household chores in our family is looked
after by me and my mother in law. she was in the house but never worked and
did whatever she liked. In the initial year, marital life was good. After some
days the respondent changed her behavior”.
The verdict is still to be declared. They have a few hearings left to check all
evidences again and declare which party is innocent.
Conclusions
• Marriage is at risk
–During early years of marriage
–When both husband and wife is working
–When both are two different religious individual