Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court has ordered an NRI woman to hand over custody of her 12-year-old son to his paternal grandparents after she took the child away from his school in April without intimating the family.
Following a dispute between the woman and her husband, both residents of Australia, the child has been living with his paternal grandparents in Ahmedabad for last six years.
After birth of the child, the woman allegedly left her husband and went to live with another person in Brisbane. But after the break up with her live-in partner, she temporarily returned to India and took away the son.
This led the elderly couple to approach the court. They cited their daughter-in-law’s diary to establish their claim that the woman had deserted the child and his father in Sydney.
The high court summoned the woman with the child immediately because the child’s impending final exams. He appeared in his exams and then the court permitted the mother to keep him during the vacation.
The woman insisted to retain custody of the child, but the court noticed that she is an Australian citizen and is having a business in Australia. She intended that until she shuts her business and returns to India, the child would stay with his maternal uncle and aunt in Surat. The high court noted that the father of the child is not able to come to India because an Australian court has restrained him from leaving the country. The HC also noted that the husband and wife are not able to resolve the dispute.
The high court considered the situation of child’s parents and asked the child with whom he wanted to live. The child preferred the grandparents. The court also took note of the fact that the grandfather owns a bungalow and is capable of maintaining the child. The high court ordered the mother to hand over the child to grandparents’ “constructive custody”. It, however, permitted the mother to take legal recourse for taking legal custody of her son.
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