03.09.2026 Sl. No.15. D/L. Mithun. Ct.No.29. CRR/3692/2026 Sagar Sarkar Vs. The State of West Bengal & Anr. Mr. Dipanjan Dutt, Mr. Souma Subhra Ray, Ms. Neelam Kumari, Ms. Swagata Santra …for the petitioner In this application, the petitioner has assailed the order dated 9th July, 2026 passed in Maintenance Case No.232 of 2018 passed by learned Judicial Magistrate, 1st Court, Barrackpore. By the impugned order, learned Court below preponed the date of recording evidence of the wife/opposite party herein and the petitioner/husband on 9th September, 2026, 16th September, 2026 and 23rd September, 2026. Being aggrieved by the aforesaid order, learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is presently serving in the Merchant Navy in the designation of Bosun and owing to the nature and exigencies of his employment, he is presently stationed outside the territorial jurisdiction of the Court below. Therefore, the petitioner is unable for reasons beyond his control to secure his physical presence before the learned Court below on the said preponed dates. Learned Counsel for the petitioner further submits that he has no intention to cause delay or obstruct the proceeding and is willing to co-operate with the learned Court below but his inability 2 to remain physically present on the preponed dates is purely circumstantial and arises solely from the exigencies of his employment. However, he submits that he is expected to reach India on 28th November, 2026 and, therefore, a date may be fixed thereafter so that the petitioner can appear before the Court physically to cross-examine his wife/opposite party’s witness as well as to adduce evidence on his part. Having heard learned Counsel for the petitioner, it appears that the prayer made by the petitioner is innocuous and if it is allowed in terms of the prayer made in the application, the opposite party will have no cause to prejudice and, as such, service of copy of application upon the opposite party stands dispensed with hereby. In view of the submission made on behalf of the petitioner and the fact that the petitioner’s inability to remain physically present on the aforesaid dates has arisen only due to the exigencies of his employment, the instant application being CRR 3692 of 2026 is hereby disposed of with a slight modification to the extent that on the preponed dates, the Court below will be at liberty to examine the opposite party herein/wife’s witness but he will fix cross-examination of the opposite party/wife’s witness as well as examination and cross examination of the opposite party/husband’s witness in the first week of December, 2026. Parties to act on a server copy of this order duly collected from the official website of the Hon’ble High Court, Calcutta. ( Dr. Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee, J. )