Family Court empowered to lay down own procedures: Madras High Court

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court today said the Family Court was empowered to lay down its own procedure to arrive at a settlement or to get the truth of the matter in matrimonial cases.

The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.Sathyanarayanan, was disposing of a PIL filed by advocate Sudha Ramalingam.

"On verification from the Registrar General of Madras High Court, we are informed that there is no circular issued for any prior permission to be obtained from the High Court through Registrar General to record evidence through video conferencing by the Family Court."

"Thus, a discretion is vested with the family court itself to record evidence through the process of video conferencing and under Section 10(3) of the said Act, the family court is empowered to lay down its own procedure to arrive at a settlement or to get the truth of the matter. It is not possible to issue any general direction which would affect the judicial discretion of the court under the said Act," the bench said.

In her petition, Sudha Ramalingam sought a direction to the Registrar General and the Law Secretary, to frame concrete viable rules for appearance of the parties through video conferencing before the family courts in Tamil Nadu.

"Number of mutual consent petitions and cases in which both parties have agreed are all kept in abeyance with no progress due to the present dilemma and decision not to allow such course of video conference," the petitioner said.

Disposing of the PIL, the First Bench, while referring to a judgment delivered by another Division Bench of the High Court, said "the first appearance of parties should take place in these family court proceedings to obviate possibility of impersonation. Thus, it is not possible to issue any general direction which would affect the judicial discretion of the family court under the said Act."