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Synopsis

The Delhi High Court has recently taken serious objection to drafting of settlement agreements in matrimonial cases on “printed proforma” by mediation centres and said that the settlement deed should show application of mind.

“It is pertinent to mention here that this court while dealing with petitions of matrimonial quashing often comes across settlement agreements being drafted by the mediation centres which are on a printed proforma. This court takes serious objection to it,” said the single judge bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma.

The bench directed the mediation centres and family courts to ensure that settlement deeds are “drafted properly” and not on a printed proforma.

While quashing an FIR by a wife against her husband and in-laws under Section 498A, 406, and 34 of the IPC and Section 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act, the single judge bench said that settlement on the printed proforma sometimes gives an impression that there is no application of mind and the settlement deed has been drafted mechanically.

In January 2015, the couple got married and after about 11 months of their marriage, they started living separately due to certain temperamental differences and disputes that cropped up between them. Thereafter, the FIR was lodged against the husband in 2016.

Counsel for the petitioner apprised the court that during the pendency of the proceedings, the parties had entered into an amicable settlement vide settlement deed dated January 16, 2020.

The court noted that the wife had entered into the settlement agreement voluntarily out of her own free will without any fear, force or coercion.

“I consider that there would be no purpose of continuing with the trial as the parties have entered into the settlement voluntarily without any fear, force and coercion, and have decided to give quietus to the proceedings. It was a matrimonial dispute which has been amicably settled and thus the parties must be given a chance to move on with their lives”, the court said.

The judge said, “The Mediation Centres and the Family Courts are directed to ensure that the settlement deeds are drafted properly and it should not be on a printed proforma”.

The court in its order dated July 28, further directed that the copy of settlement deeds which are annexed should be legible. “Let the copy of this judgment be circulated to all the Mediation Centres and the Family Courts with a direction to draft the settlement deed showing due application of mind and to ensure that the said deeds are drafted in consonance with Apex Court judgment in Ganesh vs. Sudhirkumar Shrivastava, 2020”, the court said.

Accordingly, the court disposed of the petition.

Case Title: Vivek Kumar & Ors. v. State & Anr.