In a landmark decision, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has granted the custody of the minor child to his father, who is a resident of the USA. In the decision, the court has directed the mother of the child to return the child to his father. Additionally, the court has directed the mother to return to the US.
After hearing the case, Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi found that the interest of the child rested in the custody of the father. So, the bench headed by Justice Tyagi passed the order of his return to the father in the USA. Here, it is worth mentioning to know and note the decision of custody of a minor child comes from the court that listens to all the possibilities before it decides the case in favor of the right person.
The decision on the custody came for a couple that got married in New York in 2011and a child was born in January 2016. At the age of around 2+ years of the child, the mother moved to Gurugram in India for his surgical treatment. In the case filed by the NRI father, the mother did not return to the US and gave excuses. The same thing continued even after the time deadline for their return ended in September 2019.
Quite helplessly, the father filed a case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2020 seeking custody of the child. By this time, the father even obtained the award for custody of the child, who also happened to be a minor US citizen, from the Jurisdictional Court in his favor. Stating her stand on the decision, the mother argued that the treatment of the child was not complete and that he may undergo surgery again. She also claimed that the treatment had been better in India than in the US.
Working further on the case, the court appointed lawyer Anil Malhotra as an amicus curiae. His report said that jurisprudence in child abduction laws is not similar in India. Taking notes on the case further, the court considered the pre-existing order of the foreign court and came up with the decision in favor of the father. The bench said that the child’s interests are safe under the father and that is why it came up with the order of handing over the child to the father. Here, it is worth mentioning the court termed the custody of the mother as illegal.
