Court relief for NRI wife

An Australia-based NRI’s bid to bypass the Indian judicial system for divorcing his wife has come a cropper with a Delhi court accepting his estranged wife’s plea to restrain him from pursuing the case in a Melbourne court.

An Australia-based NRI’s bid to bypass the Indian judicial system for divorcing his wife has come a cropper with a Delhi court accepting his estranged wife’s plea to restrain him from pursuing the case in a Melbourne court.

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Priyanka (name changed) approached the court after she got a message from a Melbourne court saying: “If you do not attend the court, the court may decide the divorce petition in your absence in the facts and circumstances of the case.”

Civil judge Shivali Sharma said: “An ex-parte ad interim injunction is granted in favour of the plaintiff (woman) and against the defendant (husband) thereby, restraining him from proceeding further with the divorce proceedings in the Federal court of Australia, Melbourne.” The Australian court has asked her to appear before it on February 3.

Her counsel MS Ahluwalia had sought a restraining order against her husband on the ground that a foreign court had no jurisdiction on such a plea.

The couple had wed on November 24, 2007 and the husband went abroad on December 4 and later snapped all communications with her.