The Supreme Court of Bombay (HC) recently rejected the habeas corpus petition from a grandmother in Kabul, Afghanistan, seeking instructions for her widowed daughter-in-law to live with her four sons, as this is for the US from The development of the four children would be an advantage. Though the court rejected the grandmother’s petition, the court ruled that the children’s best interest was to be with their mother and given the situation in war-torn Afghanistan, the daughter-in-law had the right to stay in India. However, the court granted visiting rights to the paternal grandmother and aunt while rejecting the petition.
The daughter-in-law, who was originally Indian, had married an Afghan who had come to Mumbai to study in 2010, moved to Afghanistan and had four sons. However, she was widowed in 2018, after which she returned to India with her four sons and began living in Kalyan with her parents and brother.
When attorney Mohammad Adenwala heard a petition from Justice SS Shinde and Justice Manish Pitale, he was informed by attorney Mohammad Adenwala that his client was not trying to separate the children from their mother, which is why the petition requested that the mother and four children accompany them to Kabul, where they could live a life of comfort and ease, as opposed to the life they and their children lived in Kalyan.
The grandmother claimed that the deceased’s four brothers and a sister had agreed to take care of the widow’s and her children’s financial needs should she return to Kabul.
After getting married in India, the couple moved to Kabul. In 2018, however, the husband was killed in a bombing by government forces while the fourth child was still in the womb. All four children had Afghan passports, although two were born in India. After her return to India in 2018, the woman lived with her brother and parents in Kalyan, allegedly in a single room. This was the reason why the children’s grandmother and paternal aunt turned to the HC to instruct the woman to return to Kabul with the children.
However, lawyer Uzair Kazi for the woman, her parents and her brother told the court that the woman was financially secure, which is why the grandmother’s assumptions were wrong. Kazi further alleged that the woman feared for the lives of her children because of the armed conflict in Afghanistan and therefore believed that a stay in India would be more beneficial for security and the future future. He also argued that under Muslim law, the mother had a primary right to custody of the children and therefore the prayers of the grandmother and aunt were refused.
After hearing the arguments, the court stated: “We believe that, in examining the best interests and well-being of the children, it would be appropriate that they remain in the care of their mother, Respondent No. 2. In any event, custody of the children with their mother is neither illegal nor inappropriate and so we are not inclined to issue a habeas corpus letter as requested by the petitioners. ”
While the petition was denied, the court granted the grandmother and aunt’s visitation rights when they come to India and weekly interaction with the children through video calls on weekends.
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