The family reunion followed the Bombay High Court's order earlier this week, on June 9, allowing the Shaikhs to have the custody of the two children.
Nagpada residents Rubina and Rafique Shaikh were reunited with their foster daughters more than two months after the two minor girls were abruptly taken away from home and placed in a children's remand home. The girls were removed from their home after a woman, identified only as Mrs Chandini, claimed to be the girls' biological mother.
The family reunion followed the Bombay High Court's order earlier this week, on June 9, allowing the Shaikhs to have the custody of the two children. A division bench of Justices PV Hardas and Ajey Gadkari while extending the interim relief granted to the couple last month, posted the petition for final hearing which will come up in due course of time.
Earlier on May 25, while directing the authorities to immediately release the children, the court had rapped the police for not following due procedures and acting arbitrarily on the statement of Mrs Chandni. It had said "The present writ petition discloses a sorry state of affairs at the hands of the enforcers of law."
The Shaikhs have been foster parents to the children, whom they found abandoned in a garbage bin about 11 years ago. Rubina Shaikh had approached the court by filing a habeas corpus petition, seeking directions to the authorities to produce the children before the court. In it, she claimed that on March 25, without any order from the Child Welfare Committee or any authority, the children were forcibly removed from her custody.
As per the Shaikhs' petition, they had found two babies lying in a garbage dustbin near Sonapur Compound, Shukhlaji Street in 2004. As there was nobody to take care of the two girls who, at the time, were approximately a year old and six-months old, they took them home. "Over the years, Rubina brought up the girls with affection and love, she has also provided food, clothing and shelter. The best possible education is being provided to the said girls," her petition reads.
After the court order, the girls were released from the Children's Home on May 23 and are presently staying with their foster parents. The woman, Chandni, who laid claim on the children, remained absent before the high court on Tuesday, even after she was served a notice to appear before the court to file her reply.
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