Velocity 10 April 2017

Nri - counter divorce petition through gpa

Dear All,

My wife filed false cases against me and my entire family on 10/09/2015- 498A, 420, 3 4 6 DP. I have been living in Belgium since 9 years. My wife knows my Belgian address as she was living with me here, before leaving to India and filing the cases on me.

She sent me a lawyer notice in October 2016 for dissolution of the marriage (Muslim marriage) to my address in Belgium, I didn’t collect this. After that she has filed the same dissolution of the marriage petition in Dec 2016 in the family court, and sent the summons of this petition to me on my parents address in Hyderabad India in March 2017. Postman hasn’t delivered this to my father as it was addressed on my name and he returned this with a note that I am living in Belgium. In her dissolution petition in Family court, she submitted the copy of lawyer notice she sent to me in Belgium on October 2016, along with the returned letters as I haven’t collected it. Based on this, she’s avoiding the obligation to send the family court notices of her dissolution petition to me on my Belgium address and aiming for ex-parte divorce.

I don’t want to come to India this year, due to the life threats I have been receiving from my wife and her father through SMS to settle this with huge amount of money. And also due to LOC and NBW on my name. I am filing a Quash petition in this month. How can I avoid her from getting an ex-parte divorce? Can I give GPA to my father to file a counter in the family court, along with RCR to avoid her getting an ex-parte? Do I need to present my-self in the court for this case? Or is there any way to avoid this? It would be very helpful if I can counter her divorce petition with a counter through GPA without my physical presence in India.

Many thanks for all your valuable suggestions and advises.

Best regards,

Shaik Chand

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3 Replies

(Guest)

No way. Unfortunately physical presence is a must at least once. No one, even gpa holders are allowed to substitute a respondent for the first time. Only exception is if the judge knows the advocate so well that he agrees to accept his advocacy without your presence. Check with local advocates if they are confident of convincing judge of this. Also enquire if you can be present virtually over Skype. Recently they've been allowing this too, though rarely.

Velocity 13 April 2017

Meanwhile I was advised by other NRIs facing the similar situation to go ahead with the GPA option as it is allowed and my presence is only needed for the trial. Can you please help me to understand your answer if it was based on a personal experience or any case that you have witnessed, this would help me to construct my next steps. Many thanks.