New Delhi, August 02: Balvinder Singh and Bhinder Kaur may someday tell their children a story — about how an ugly court battle for divorce turned into courtship all over again.
After a 12-year-long legal fight and separation, Singh proposed once again. And the Supreme Court, eager to salvage a marriage in a day and age when divorces are becoming increasingly common, didn’t dispose.
The estranged couple experienced this ‘literal’ change of heart during a recent hearing in the apex court.
To ensure that an afterthought did not spoil the chances of a successful reunion, a bench comprising Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice R.M. Lodha immediately directed Singh to take Kaur — she had come from Bhatinda in Punjab — to his house in Haryana’s Sirsa district.
Interestingly, the couple’s lawyers were clueless about their new intentions. They started arguing the case but had to stop when their clients told the court that they wanted to live together with their children — a son and a daughter.
“Before we pass a final order in the matter, we direct the husband to take his wife today to his residence …,” the court said. It posted the matter for a final order after a month.
The bench asked Kaur to take the children from Bhatinda to Sirsa.
That was not all.
To ensure the couple faced no practical problems, the Supreme Court issued directions to the Government Senior Secondary School and the Akal Academy — the best schools in Sirsa, according to Singh — to grant immediate admission to the children if they applied.
It also directed the children’s present schools in Bhatinda to issue transfer certificates within a month.
Advocate Jasbir Singh Malik, who appeared for Singh, said the couple had been fighting a legal battle since 1997.
They got married in Sirsa’s Baragudha village in 1995. But after a year of marital bliss, the Couple was fighting a divorce case relationship started turning sour. Quarrels became frequent and the couple even lodged police complaints against each other.
While Singh alleged his wife used to beat him up and take away household articles under the garb of her right over dowry, Kaur levelled serious charges against her in-laws. She claimed they had tried to burn her and even accused her father-in-law of attempting rape.
Finally, in 1997, Singh filed a divorce petition before a family court on the ground that his wife was subjecting him to cruelty.
But the court dismissed the plea in 2001 saying he had failed to prove the allegation.
Singh approached the Supreme Court in 2007 after the high court dismissed his appeal.
Kaur, however, kept opposing the divorce plea.
Though their personal fight was being carried forward by lawyers, Justice Chatterjee decided to summon the two during a hearing last month.
And then the couple, who had been living in different states, surprised everyone by announcing they wanted to be together.
–Agencies