The High Court of Delhi has ruled that an appeal against a decree or order of Family Courts must be filed within 30 days from its pronouncement.

The Court issued clarification after noting that there was a clear inconsistency between the limitation periods provided for under the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) & the Family Courts Act, 1984. While the HMA, as amended in 2003, mentioned a 90-day limitation period for appeals, the Family Courts Act laid down a 30-day period.

The division bench of Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva & Vikas Mahajan said, “Clearly Section 28 of the HMA & Section 19 of the Family Courts Act operate in different spheres & apply to orders passed by different forums i.e. District Court & the Family Court respectively. Thus, the period of limitation for filing an appeal from an appealable order & decree of the District Court would be 90 days under section 28 of HMA & the period of limitation for filing an appeal from an appealable order & judgment of the Family Court, wherever it has been set up, would be 30 days under section 19 of the Family Courts Act”.

However, wherever family courts have been set up, the FCA, 1984 will apply & the appeal under Section 19 of the said Act must be filed within 30 days from the family court decree or order, the court said.

The directions came while the bench was hearing an appeal filed by a woman challenging a family court order allowing her husband’s plea for divorce under Section 13(1)(ia) of the HMA.

The husband raised an objection stating that the appeal was barred by limitation under the Family Courts Act.

The appellant-wife countered the objection stating that the appeal was filed under Section 28 of HMA, wherein the period of limitation prescribed is 90 days & not 30 days.

The Court noting that the limitation period mentioned under the FCA is applicable in this case granted an opportunity to the appellant-wife to file an appropriate application seeking condonation of delay.

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