Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 – Custody of children – 15 days interim custody to the father – Grant of – Appellantmother sought permanent custody of children, one son and one daughter – Family court restrained respondent-father from forcibly removing the minor children from the custody of the mother – Family court granted visitation rights to the father – On petition of the father, High Court granted interim custody of the children to the father for 15 days – SLP by mother raising concerns regarding environment being provided to the daughter during the interim custody period of
15 days granted to the father – During pendency, this Court stayed the operation of interim custody granted to father in respect of minor son, and the interim custody of the daughter continued – Sustainability:
Held: Order passed by the High Court not sustainable – In cases of child custody, the paramount consideration should be the welfare of the child – Utmost sincerity, love and affection showered by either of the parents, by itself, cannot be a ground to decide the custody of a child – On facts, interim arrangement charted out by High Court, neither feasible nor conducive to the well-being, mental and physical, of the children – Directing the interim custody of the tender aged boy of three years to be assigned to the father, grossly unjustified, may have serious adverse effects, and is totally uncalled for – As regards the daughter, the intervening circumstances and the information provided by the child during interaction fortifies the genuine concern of the mother that the environment being provided to the child by the father during the interim custody may not be conducive to her physical and emotional well-being – Child definitely requires nutritious home cooked food for overall well-being, growth and development and the father not in a position to provide such nutrition to the child – Also the child gets no company except that of the father during the interim custody period whereas the parents of the mother are staying with her – Emotional and moral support which the child gets at her mother’s home is manifold than what is being provided by the father during custody period – Period of 15 days with the father would also lead to deprivation of her company to her sibling – High Court clearly erred in granting interim custody of the children to the father for a period of 15 days every month – Arrangement made by the High Court not arrived at by weighing the pros and cons of the situation – Periodic division of custody definitely adverse to the well-being; physical, mental and emotional, of the children – To provide the father fair and reasonable access to the children, the father entitled to interim custody of the daughter on alternate Saturdays and Sundays of every month, and on either of these two days, interim custody of the boy child for a period of four hours – Father to make sincere efforts to provide home cooked meals to the children during this period of interim custody – Impugned order set aside. [Paras 19-29, 32]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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