Mumbai: The Bombay high court recently upheld the custody of a one-year-old child with her father and rejected the maternal grandmother’s claim to have her custody. The HC, however, granted the grandmother visitation rights.
“…since X is the biological father of the child, he definitely is entitled to have her custody and the petitioner, the grandmother,… is not, according to us, entitled to have the custody of the child, when the child’s natural guardian/biological father is there to take care of her,” said Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande on Nov 27.
The grandmother filed a habeas corpus petition to produce the child. Her petition stated that her daughter and granddaughter lived with her in her Dindoshi residence. Her daughter died of cancer in March and two months later, the child’s father came with the police and forcibly took her away. The grandmother’s advocates, Snehal Kolamkar and Allwyn D’silva, said her daughter’s last wish was that her child live with her.
Following HC’s Oct 25 order, Dindoshi police verified the father’s workplace and his residence. The judges noted the child was produced before them on Oct 25, and they permitted the grandmother to interact with her. “…and we could ourselves see the bond between the two. We do not want this bond to be disconnected as we quite see that the petitioner is attached to the child since her own daughter is no longer alive and she would like to see her granddaughter…,” they added.
Considering the interest of the grandmother as well as the father, they directed that the child shall remain in the custody of the father, but the grandmother be entitled to access to the child at least twice a month, including that she will be permitted in the Dombivli’s residence of the father and be with the child in his presence. Likewise, the father shall take the child to her grandmother’s house in Dindoshi, and it is his choice whether to remain there or collect his daughter after about four to five hours.
“Since we are of the clear opinion that the child will only receive love and affection from the petitioner, who is her own grandmother, we see no hesitancy in permitting access to the child, though we are now assured that the child is safe with the respondent [father] who has a source of earning and his address is also verified,” the judges said.
However, they made it clear that if the father shifts his residence, the grandmother “shall be well intimated and he shall also intimate his change of address” to the police station.
