No response to summons by husband living abroad.

This is a very common frustration in the Indian Court systems, especially in matrimonial matters. Opposite side just avoids taking the summon.  If it is a foreign address, you need to serve through the Indian Consulate/Embassy and if that too fails, then approach the Judge with affidavit and proof of all attempts made to serve. At that point, the Judge may rule Ex Parte.  Then the opposite party wakes up, cooks up some story, and applies to reverse the Ex Parte judgment. Usually they succeed because Ex parte judgments are not favored by appeals court. The whole process delays the entire proceeding for a LONG time. Justice delayed is justice denied. It is extremely frustrating. Unfortunately, that is how it is. 

Here is a tricky way to get around it - This applies to both husband and wives. 

Make a brother, sister, mother, father or even a dog of the opposte party, all of them or at least some of them,  parties to the case to be filed (not dog, of course).  Cook up some ground or the other. Then they all have to attend Court. This will prompt the REAL party to show up. It is just a pressure tactic.  To make them parties, you can just make some minor claims but sufficiently valid enough to have legal basis to drag them to Court.  Ask your advocate to pass the message to the opposite side that if the REAL party shows up, you are willing to drop them as parties but before the Judge, you pretend that they too are real parties and have wronged you! In the Court systems in India, if opposing party plays dirty, you need to reciprocate in kind!

Thank you for responding. I don't need to make up a story against anyone in his family. They've already done enough. They all harrased me to the extreme level and almost put me into depression. There was constant demand for gifts in the form of cash and kind for every festival. His mother would demand gold jewelery for herself from my income. I was forced to pay major part of my income to my husband in the name of house expenses every month which also included his liquor needs. In spite of this I was beaten up by my husband. I was a maid cum a working woman who paid major portion of the household expenses. To top this I realised my husband was in a relationship with an indonesian muslim woman 10 years elder to him. I really need to get out of this. I am sorry I am putting all this out on the internet like this. But I am really sick of it. This was really a scam. He married me only due to societal pressure and of course for a maid who would also support him financially. If all this wasn't enough, his mother even tried to burn me by turning the gas stove on the final day I left his house. And none of this is made up. I really need some good advice to get done with this case soon. I think my lawyer is not doing enough. I really want to know how much time could such a case take?

First step: Keep your emotions under control. Keep your goals in mind to pursue litigation with specific purpose. "I think my lawyer is not doing enough" is expected. Few lawyers do enough. Get the summons served thru the Indian consulate. Wait... (Lets say two months pass by). Then approach the Court for Ex Parte proceeding. File an application to do so. Concurrently file a Writ Petition in the High Court asking that the case be heard on an expedited basis in the lower court. Unless you do all this, it will take years... and by the time it is all done, you will be 10 years older, minimum, if you are lucky.  No advocate is going to give you this advice... to file a Writ Petition in High Court to expedite.  ALL THIS CAN BE DONE WITHOUT AN ADVOCATE. You write sufficiently well... better than most advocates. 

I am not going to comment on your allegations and the various proceedings you can initiate if they are indeed true.  I am just providing procedural guidance. However, just bear in mind that when you file criminal proceedings, if allegations cannot be proven, they can backfire a LOT, particularly if they can be proven to be false. Advocates encourage the filing of all types of cases to maximize their income. You need to stay focused on very narrow goals which can be practically achieved. Some sacrifices will have to be made to achieve these narrow goals quickly. I suggest that you file just plain-vanilla divorce case based upon desertion (if two years have passed since he deserted you) and cruelty by him and his family members. Keep it simple and get over with it.  If you file a multitude of criminal cases, even if they deserve to be punished, you will be spreading your resources too thin... both financial and mental.

Thank you very much! I will do the needful. Also, can I send him a copy through email? Will that help? Can I send him constant reminders through different media? Will that add any value?

The Court summon to the Respondent/defendant living in a foreign country is sent directly through Ministry of Law and Company Affairs that will send it to the Indian High Commission in the foreign country. The Indian High Commission through its consulate gets the  court summon served up on the Respondent/defendant living in that country and send the report of service of summon to the court via the same channel.

This process should be known to your lawyer, why did that fellow on the first date used this process of sending summon to your husband to Jakarta, Indonesia along with the local Indian address in Delhi?

It is the responsibility of the advocate handling the case in the court to use all the known address of the Respondent/defendant for sending the court summons from the very first time itself to save time of the court and money of the client, but unfortunately that is not the mentality of most advocates who are more money minded than professional in their approach.

You are right, @Vijay sir. Only after getting into this mess I realise how difficult these procedures can get when your lawyer isn't really doing much. He should have sent it the first time itself but he tells me that summon could be sent through the embassy only when the court approves and the court approves only when it is rejected at his local address. By now I know he has been making up stories just out of laziness. Anyway the procedure to send the summon through consulate has begun. What I want to know is that, since my lawyer is not doing enough, will it be okay if I send him the summon through electronic media such as email? Will the court consider it? 

All I want is divorce! Everything I am doing is for that! So to apeal for exparte I must prove to the court that I tried all means to send the summon to my husband. We have taken the court's approval to even send the summon to him through speed post (through the embassy of course). I read somewhere that sending through electronic media could help expedite the matter.

At some point, you need to file an affidavit with the Court and list all attempts and types of attempts made to deliver the summon.  The more the merrier... Despite all this, if the lower Court declines to proceed Ex Parte, you will have more ammunition to show when you appeal that Order. So, email, hand delivery, consulate... Hey... you can even you can try to serve it through a Pigeon as long as you can get proof that the Pigeon really tried to serve it on him. Just kidding but you get the point.  Matrimonial litigations involve two types of headaches: The matrimony headache and headache from the advocate. So, take control and represent yourself. You wil NOT regret it.

The first summon was sent to his family in October, 2015 itself. They have not been responding since then! We hand delivered the summon to his local address in Delhi last month. However, from what I understand it is mandatory for the summon to be sent to him before even the court considers exparte. I am patient but I want to be persistent. I cannot let this go on for years. I dont' want to suffer, I have done no wrong. 

I have gone through this exercise with my ex- refusing to take summons. So, I know what needs to be done first-hand. The other person accepting summons is NOT in your control and therefore the Courts, at some point, allow you to proceed Ex Parte. The Court needs sufficient evidence of your due diligence to attempt to serve Summans and the other person's intentional avoidance. That is ALL there is to it. And it really sums up all the advice given above... 

Yes, I understand now. Thanks a lot! This discussion has given me enough clarity to take further actions.