Justice Anand Venkatesh noted that once such data is placed before the court, it could seek assistance from experienced lawyers and come up with a different kind of solution in all the cases. The court also noted that such a step will have a positive impact and help the families in resolving the dispute amicably.

“In view of the above, there shall be a direction to all the Principal District Judges across the State of Tamil Nadu to collect the data from the concerned Family Courts/Courts dealing with matrimonial disputes pertaining to those marriages which had taken place between the year 2020 to 2022. If the data is placed before this Court before the next date of hearing, this Court will seek the assistance of the counsel who have rich experience in Family Court disputes and see if a different kind of solution can be adopted in all these cases. This Court is confident that such a step will surely have a positive impact and it will help many families coming together by resolving the dispute amicably,” the court said.

The court came up with the idea after noting that in the past 3 months, almost every matrimonial case that came to the court was with respect to marriages that took place between 2019 to 2022, when the world was facing the Corona pandemic. The court also noted that in 95% of the cases, the parties had hardly lived together for 6 to 9 months and in some cases, only for 3 months.

The court noted that when the parties were living in the same house the best and worst aspects of their characters were exposed, coupled with the pressure of thinking about the future, it had a direct impact in the marital relationship. The court remarked that the corona not only took lives but also destroyed the institution of marriage during the period.

“The Coronovirus has not only taken away human lives but had also destroyed the institution of marriage during that period. Since the parties were inside the same house, the best and worst aspects of their characters were exposed and most of them were under pressure, thinking about their future and it had a direct impact on their marital relationship,” the court said.

Thus, the court opined that these cases should be dealt with as a separate category as the parties had lived together only for a few months and were going through extraordinary circumstances at the time due to the pandemic.

The court made the observations while dealing with a criminal revision petition filed by a husband against the order of the Family Court, directing him to pay interim maintenance of Rs 10,000 to the wife.

The court, however, found that the amount fixed by the court was reasonable and not exorbitant. The court was thus not inclined to interfere with the order and directed the husband to pay arrears of maintenance within a period of four weeks.

Counsel for Appellant: Mr. CH. Mohith Sai

Counsel for Respondent: Mr. A. M. Packianathan Easter Asst.by: Mr. Agathian J. Pandian for M/s.Easter Legal