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Supreme Court raps Madras High Court over child custody case, says 'girl child is not a chattel'

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Supreme Court of India
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'A girl-child is not a chattel,' said the Supreme Court while lamenting the order of the Madras High Court which treated a four-year-old as a "shuttle cock" in a custody battle between her parents.

"We are sorry the way the High Court has handled. She is treated like a shuttle cock that she has to be with mother for four days and with father for three days. Agony of the child should not be put in the manner the High Court has put. We are not satisfied with this arrangement. This has to be corrected," the bench, also comprising justices Kurian Joseph and RF Nariman said.

"The arrangement of the High Court is something which is shocking the conscience of this court," the bench said, adding that "this arrangement can't be permitted to continue".

The bench was hearing the battle for the custody of the daughter, whose mother alleged that she was snatched from her by her estranged husband. At the outset, the bench expressed its displeasure over the arrangement made by the High Court which allowed the girl child out of the custody of her mother.

"A girl child is not a chattel. She can't be lifted and taken away. She cannot be removed from her mother. Law takes into account what is paramount welfare of the child," the bench observed before passing a formal order by which the father who is presently having the custody of the child "bring her" to the apex court on July 21.

"You bring the child here on Monday," the bench said while appointing two women apex court lawyers Madhavi Divan and V Mohana as mediators to resolve the custody dispute. The bench said the two lawyers would sit with the girl child and talk with her and are also free to take whatever way they think fit to arrive at some solution and thereafter in-chamber hearing will take place. 

However, during the hearing, the bench expressed unhappiness over the entire episode and asked senior counsel for the mother and father, Nalini Chidambaram and Abhishekh Singhvi respectively, that techinical issues should not be pressed in such matters.

"Technical things does not matter. The core issue is a child who is hardly four-year-old," the bench said, adding, "We are very concerned that this is not the way a girl child has to be treated". "We are firmly on the facts of the case and the issue of law can be deferred," it added.

While Singhvi was making submission, the bench said, "There is no justification for you (father) to take away the child from the mother when she was in the custody of the mother".

"We are of the view prima facie that the child should be with the mother," the bench said but warned the couple that if they don't take corrective measures their daughter may be put in the child care home.
The case pertains to the couple who was married in 2001 and have two daughters with the elder one staying in a boarding school.

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