In an interim arrangement of sorts the Bombay high court recently did not grant full custody of an adopted child to her mother but allowed her access to the minor three days in a week.
A division bench of Justices VM Kanade and MS Sonak was hearing counter appeals filed by the mother, a resident of Goa, and her estranged Italian husband, who presently resides in Pune.
In June 2010, the couple were granted joint guardianship of a two and a half-year-old girl from a Pune adoption centre. A year later, the couple split and the wife held custody of the child.
In June 2011, the husband got an order from the family court granting him custody. Since then the child has been living with the father in Pune.
Aggrieved by this, the wife moved the high court seeking custody of the child and maintenance from the husband. To which the court said: “At this stage, we are not inclined to grant full custody to the mother. The child has been living with her father for two years. We do not know what kind of trauma the child may face if she is now uprooted and sent to her mother’s house.”
The court has made the arrangement till December 23, the next hearing of the petition, and it is likely that the order could be reviewed then based on the situation.
The wife in her appeal had contended that the Child Adoption and Regulation Act clearly states that a single male would not be given a girl child in adoption. The husband, however, opposed this and argued that the child’s welfare should be of paramount consideration. He alleged that the child had lived in unhygienic conditions in the wife’s house in Goa.
Of Italian father and Indian mother
In June 2010, the couple were granted joint guardianship of a two and a half-year-old girl from a Pune adoption centre
A year later, the couple split and the wife held custody of the child
In June 2011, the husband got an order from the family court granting him custody
Since then the child has been livng with the father
The wife in her appeal had contended that the Child Adoption and Regulation Act clearly states that a single male would not be given a girl child in adoption.
The court has now made the arrangement till December 23.
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