Chat with child helps top court decide custody case
An informal chat with an eight-year-old girl helped a Supreme Court bench hearing a petition by her father against her mother — the couple is divorced — arrive at a judgment.
An informal chat with an eight-year-old girl helped a Supreme Court (SC) bench hearing a petition by her father against her mother — the couple is divorced — arrive at a judgment.About Manisha (name changed), who was dragged to court over which of her parents should have her custody, the bench of justices Altamas Kabir, GS Singhvi and Cyriac Joseph said: “She is an extremely intelligent and precocious child. She wants to enjoy the love and affection of both her father and mother and even in our presence expressed the desire that what she wants most is that they should come together again.”
The judges disregarded the allegations made by her father, Mohan Kumar Rayana, a Mumbai-based businessman, that his wife Komal left her matrimonial home and child to try her hand at films and TV. They upheld a Bombay high court judgment that the mother is entitled to the girl’s custody and the father has visitation rights. “The interest of the minor is of paramount importance,” the bench said.Komal’s lawyer Meenakshi Lekhi told the SC that the Mumbai family court had thrown out Rayana’s allegations, and allowed Manisha to be with Komal. The court allowed Rayana to meet the girl twice a week and on vacations.Lekhi said the father, a “very successful businessman” who has to go abroad often, was not “really interested in the welfare” of the child.
But the bench analysed the girl’s behaviour and saw no merit in her mother’s counsel’s arguments against her father. The bench observed that Manisha “appeared to have no inhibitions” in meeting her father with whom she enjoys “excellent understanding”, and based their judgment on this observation.