Ex-sherif f: wife secretly divorced me while I was on holiday
Pair in ‘bigamy’ court battle
A FORMER sheriff whose wife divorced him without his knowledge while he was on holiday has asked a judge to scrap the ruling.
Raj Jandoo, who was the country’s first Asian advocate, said he returned from a three-month trip to India to learn his wife Nerinder Kaur, 49, had been granted a ‘quickie’ divorce.
Mr Jandoo, of Edinburgh, has taken the case to the Court of Session to have the divorce decree scrapped and the couple declared still legally married.
But Miss Kaur has already remarried, meaning she could be left open to accusations of bigamy if his case is successful.
The 60-year-old lawyer says he has no interest in continuing the relationship.
But he insists they have financial matters to sort out and a quickie divorce – known as simplified procedure – was not appropriate.
After a hearing, judge Lord Woolman said he was minded to grant Mr Jandoo’s request but matters were complicated by Miss Kaur having remarried.
He said cancelling the divorce would leave her in ‘legal limbo’ as she ‘cannot be married to two men at the same time’.
Instead, he has given Mr Jandoo – who led an inquiry into the handling of the 1998 murder of waiter Surjit Singh Chhokar – and his ex-wife three months to come to an agreement.
The court heard the couple met in 2010 through an online dating agency and married in December 2012. Shortly before the marriage Mr Jandoo trans-within ferred two Edinburgh flats – worth £180,000 and £56,700 – into Miss Kaur’s name.
He told the court he did this to show his ‘love and commitment to her’. But the flats were not ‘outright gifts’ and he intended them to be part of the matrimonial assets. The couple split three months of their wedding day and Miss Kaur first sought a simplified divorce in May 2015 – which was refused.
She was granted a divorce in February 2016 at Dunfermline Sheriff Court while Mr Jandoo was in India. He said he did not receive emails and letters about the case as he was out of the country and was unable to challenge the decision.
In a written ruling, Lord Woolman said Mr Jandoo had suffered ‘despair, distrust and desolation’ following the breakdown of his marriage.
The judge said: ‘He contends that there was a dispute about their finances at the time of the divorce. Accordingly the simplified procedure was not appropriate. Further, he did not know
‘Distrust and desolation’
that the action had been raised. If he had known, he would have taken steps to enter the process or to ensure that decree was not granted in absence.
‘The defender has since remarried. She maintains she properly followed all the required steps in the divorce action.’
He added: ‘By proceeding as she did the defender deprived the pursuer of the opportunity to seek an order for financial provision.’
In 2005, Mr Jandoo was convicted in Stornoway of endangering an aircraft and frightening passengers by making references to a bomb during a flight to Lewis.
He was fined £2,500. He admitted two breach of the peace charges in Edinburgh in 2013.