The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court on Thursday took exception to a man's petition which referred to his former wife as 'divorcee' in the case title, observing that it was unbecoming and reflected his mindset..Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul said that since the petitioner has used this word/expression of 'divorcee' against his former wife's name, he also should have used 'divorcer' against his name.If a woman is being labelled and shown as 'divorcee' as if it is her surname or caste, then a man who divorces his wife is also to be called and suffixed as 'divorcer', the Court said.Therefore, the judge urged the court registry not to register petitions which use such terminology and instructed that the present order be placed before the Chief Justice of the High Court for issuance of necessary circular towards that end..The Court said that it was very painful to see a woman being treated like this and such practices have to be eschewed."Such a practice should be stopped rather crushed. And henceforth if any motion/petition/appeal indicates and reflects in its cause-title the word “Divorcee ”, against the name of a woman, such a motion / petition/appeal should not be diarised or registered much less entertained," it emphasized.The Court added that to stop such practices, a circular is required to be issued instructing that if any motion/petition/appeal is found to have the cause-title with the word/expression 'divorcee' against the name of woman, such a plea would not be diarized/registered by the court registry.Such instructions should also be issued/transmitted to the subordinate courts, it further said. Accordingly, the Court referred the proposal to High Court Chief Justice."Registrar Judicial of this Court is directed to place this judgement before Hon’ble the Chief Justice for passing of kind orders and issuance of circular instructions, in view of above.".Meanwhile, the Court dismissed the review petition with costs of ₹20,000. .Advocate I Sofi appeared for the petitioner..[Read Judgment]
