Bombay high court has told a woman seeking custody of her four-year-old to quit her job and stay with her parents so as to allow the child’s father easy access.
The Bombay high court has told a woman seeking custody of her four-year-old to quit her job and stay with her parents so as to allow the child’s father easy access.
The court gave the ruling while hearing the petition of a woman from Sangli, seeking interim custody of the boy who has been living with his father for the past year and a half. In her petition, she accused the husband of taking the child away forcibly.
After speaking to the child and the woman’s parents, the court concluded that if she were to continue in her job in Lonavala after getting the boy’s custody, the father, who stays 35km away from her parents’ house in Sangli, would find it difficult to reach him. “Hence, the mother cannot be allowed to live in Lonavala and claim interim custody of the child. She would then only be entitled to access,” the court said.
The couple married in 2007 and the child was born a year later. In 2010, the woman took the child and went to live with her parents.
In her petition the woman said her husband had kept the child since January 2011 when he was given “access”.
She moved the family court seeking interim custody of the child. The court neither rejected nor accepted her plea. It posted the matter for hearing, along with the divorce petition filed by her husband, and allowed him custody of the child till then.
The wife moved the high court challenging the family court order. In his defence, the man said his in-laws had given him custody of the child after his wife left Sangli to work in Lonavala. The high court, however, said he could not have got the child’s custody as the custody petition was pending. The court also termed the family court’s decision to not hear the woman’s plea incorrect. “Considering an application of custody of a child of four years by the mother is a fragile matter,” the court said.
The woman eventually undertook to give up her job and live with her parents on getting interim custody. The court accepted her assurance and told her to submit her resignation letter before the court.
Explaining the order, advocate Shilpa Joshi, who specialises in family court matters, said, “In custody cases the interests of the child are paramount and courts pass orders keeping that in mind.”
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