It is common for estranged couples to knock on the doors of a court of law for divorce when they believe that reconciliation is not possible. The court’s job is to legalise mutual separation and grant divorce so that both parties involved go their separate ways. But one normally does not expect the court to play counsel to the estranged couple and try to get them back together. The judge of a family court has, however, done exactly that and has seemingly got a couple, on the brink of divorce, back together again.
This rare occurrence took place at the Sagar district court and involved Sonu Sharma and his wife Varsha Sharma, from Gopalganj. Sonu and Varsha got married in 2017. It was during the first lockdown when differences cropped up between the couple and they started living separately. Varsha started living at her maternal place and a year ago, they filed for divorce in the family court. The divorce was almost finalised with even the amount of alimony being decided upon.
However, when the petition came before Chief Justice of the Family Court, Atul Khandelwal, he decided to give the couple a last chance for reconciliation. He called both of them and counselled them, trying to make them see reason. When this endeavour failed, he even summoned the fathers of both Sonu and Varsha and talked to them. Justice Atul Khandelwal sent Varsha back to her in-law’s place after advising both to try to reconcile and adjust with each other. This did the trick as Sonu and Varsha slowly reconciled with each other. The couple had an official reconciliation at the Lok Adalat by garlanding each other. The couple are together as of now. Sonu used to work as a teacher in a school. Now he runs a restaurant.