Child’s welfare prime concern in custody wars: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has ruled that a child can’t be treated as a “property or a commodity” in custody battles and no personal law or statutory enactment can come in the way of his/her welfare. If a complicated situation arises, the court can act as parents of the child.

The court asserted that nothing would prevent a court from intervening when the child is neglected. While trying to determine which parent should get custody of a child, the paramount consideration remains the welfare and interest of the child and not the rights of the parents under the statute, a bench of justices P Sathasivam and BS Chauhan said.

The statutory provisions dealing with child custody “cannot and must not supersede the paramount consideration” as to what is conducive to the welfare of the minor. “In fact, no statute on the subject, can ignore, eschew or obliterate the vital factor of the welfare of the minor,’’ the court held.

The judgment came on a petition filed Dr Ashish Ranjan, who had brought a contempt charge against his divorced wife Dr Anupama Tandon for denying him access to their child. The father had been given the right to visit the child, but she denied him access, thus defying the apex court.

The judges said that Anupama had poisoned the child’s mind to such an extent that the child did not even want to meet his father. She did not also let him accept his father’s calls. This is the reason the judges found her guilty of contempt and ordered that the father be given custody of the child.