Family Court Should Not Give Adjournment For Long Period While Referring The Parties To Court Counsellor: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court in the case Ravinder Sigh Bhasin v. Kanwaljit Kaur And Ors observed and has stated that the family court should not give an adjournment for the long period while referring the parties in the matrimonial dispute to a Court Counsellor in order to explore the possibility of a settlement.
The bench headed by Justice Navin Chawla in the case observed and has stated that while preponing of the matrimonial dispute which is pending before the family court which was adjourned to October 18, 2023.
The court stated that even though the order records that there are approximately 4000 matrimonial cases of various nature which are before the learned Family Court, thus, such a long adjournment is still
not warranted.
Further, the court stated that this court is of the view to keep a watch on the petition or counselling proceedings that take place before the Court Counsellor on a regular basis, and such watch cannot happen if the said Court adjourns the matter for such a long date.
In the present case, the court was hearing the petition moved by the husband seeking an expeditious disposal of his divorce petition before the family court in a time bound manner.
It has also been submitted before the court on behalf of the counsel appearing for the husband that the family court had referred the parties to Court Counsellor in order to explore the possibility of arriving at an amicable settlement.
Further, it has also been contended before the court that there being no such possibility of an amicable settlement of the disputes between the parties and thus, the adjournment to such a long date was not warranted.
The counsel appearing for the Wife submitted before the court that there being no objection to preponement of the date of hearing of the case pending before the family court.
The bench of Justice Chawla in the case observed and has stated that the learned Family Court, therefore, while referring the parties to a Court Counsellor should not give an adjournment for such a long period
The court in the case observed and has requested the family court not to grant any unwarranted adjournments to either party and to make an endeavour for expeditious adjudication of the case before it, while preponing the matter to August 08, 2023.
Accordingly, the court listed the matter for further consideration to
October 18, 2023.