Bombay High Court
Shubhangi Mandar Mhatre vs Mandar Mohan Mhatre on 26 August, 2025
Author: N. J. Jamadar
Bench: N. J. Jamadar
2025:BHC-AS:36704
3-APPLN-144-2025.DOC
Arun Sankpal
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
APPLICATION NO. 144 OF 2025
Shubhangi Mandar Mhatre ..Applicant
Versus
Mandar Mohan Mhatre ...Respondent
Mr. Swapnil R. Patil, for the Applicant
Mr. Dinesh J. Haldankar, APP, for the Respondent-State.
CORAM: N. J. JAMADAR, J.
DATED : 26th AUGUST 2025
P.C.:
1. Heard the learned Counsel for the Applicant.
2. The learned Counsel for the Applicant seeks leave to tender Affidavit of Service.
ARUN RAMCHANDRA Leave granted. Affidavit of Service is taken on record. SANKPAL Digitally signed by ARUN RAMCHANDRA
3. It appears that the notice has been duly served on the Respondent SANKPAL Date: 2025.08.26 20:29:53 +0530 No.1.
4. None appears for the Respondent.
5. By this Application, the Applicant seeks transfer of the DV Case No. 106 of 2019, which is pending on the file of learned JMFC, 27 th Court, Mulund to the Court of learned JMFC, Pune. 1/4 ::: Uploaded on - 26/08/2025 ::: Downloaded on - 26/08/2025 21:43:21 :::
3-APPLN-144-2025.DOC
6. The marriage of the Applicant was solemnized with the Respondent on 28th December 2004. In the wake of marital discord, the Applicant was constrained to leave her matrimonial home along with her minor daughter. The Applicant had filed the proceeding under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 ("the DV Act"), being case No. 106 of 2019, before the learned JMFC, 27 th Court, Mulund. However, since the Applicant lost her job and was constrained to relocate to Pune, along with her daughter, the Applicant finds it extremely inconvenient to attend the proceeding before the JMFC Court at Mulund.
7. The Respondent No.1 chose not to appear despite service of the notice. The averments in the Application have gone uncontroverted. It is trite in the matter of transfer of the proceeding arising out of the matrimonial dispute, ordinarily, it is the convenience of the wife which commands preference. A useful reference, in this context, can be made to a decision of the Supreme Court in the case of N.C.V. Aishwarya vs. A. S. Saravana Kartihk Sha1, wherein the factors which should weigh in, in deciding the prayer for transfer of the proceedings in matrimonial disputes, were succinctly enunciated as under:
"9. The cardinal principle for exercise of power under Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure is that the ends of justice should demand the transfer of 1 2022 SCC Online SC 1199.2/4
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3-APPLN-144-2025.DOC the suit, appeal or other proceeding. In matrimonial matters, wherever Courts are called upon to consider the plea of transfer, the Courts have to take into consideration the economic soundness of both the parties, the social strata of the spouses and their behavioural pattern, their standard of life prior to the marriage and subsequent thereto and the circumstances of both the parties in eking out their livelihood and under whose protective umbrella they are seeking their sustenance to life. Given the prevailing socio-economic paradigm in the Indian society, generally, it is the wife's convenience which must be looked at while considering transfer."
8. In the instant case, the Applicant does not seem to have the means and resources to effectively prosecute the proceeding at Mulund, while she resides at Pune. The Applicant would suffer extreme hardship and inconvenience if the proceeding is continued before the Court of the learned JMFC, Mulund.
9. I am, therefore, inclined to allow the Application.
10. Hence the following order:
(i) The Application stands allowed in terms of prayer clause (a).
(ii) DV Case No. 106 of 2019 pending on the file of the learned JMFC, 27th Court, Mulund, 3/4 ::: Uploaded on - 26/08/2025 ::: Downloaded on - 26/08/2025 21:43:21 ::: 3-APPLN-144-2025.DOC stands transferred to the JMFC Court at Pune, for hearing and disposal in accordance with law.
(iii) The learned JMFC, 27th Court, Mulund, shall transfer the record and proceedings in DV Case No. 106 of 2019 to the JMFC Court at Pune with such dispatch that it reaches, the later Court, within a period of four weeks from the date of communication of this order.
Application stands disposed.
No costs.
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