A High Court can transfer an Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) case from one subordinate court to another within its state jurisdiction under Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), 1908. [1]
Key Rules for HMA Case Transfers by a High Court
- Legal Provision: Applications for transferring an HMA case (such as divorce under Section 13 or restitution of conjugal rights under Section 9) between district or family courts in the same state are filed in the respective High Court under Section 24 of the CPC. [1, 2, 3]
- Common Grounds Considered: High Courts frequently allow transfer petitions filed by a spouse (commonly the wife) based on practical hardships, such as:
- Financial dependency or being unemployed.
- Responsibility of raising minor children.
- Long distance between the current court location and the spouse’s place of residence (e.g., 100+ km).
- Other pending litigation (like Domestic Violence or Section 125 CrPC maintenance cases) already running in the hometown court. [2, 4]
- Inter-State Transfers: A High Court cannot transfer a case to a court located in another state. Inter-state transfers of HMA cases must be filed before the Supreme Court of India under Section 25 of the CPC. [5, 6, 7]
- Same-State / Conflicting Petitions (Section 21-A HMA): When two separate divorce or judicial separation petitions are filed by the husband and wife in different courts within the same jurisdiction, the later-filed petition is typically transferred and clubbed with the earlier-filed petition. [3, 8]
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