MUMBAI: In the recent case, the Bombay High Court held that both Mother and Father have equal responsibility for their Children and they should perform their duties. Court obseved while permitting a father to get overnight access to his child in a custody battle with his wife.
The vacation judge Justice Milind Jadhav was approached by the mother of the child against an order of the trial court permitting the father to have overnight access to the child. The Court said that children need love, understanding and company of both the parents for their mental health growth.
The Court said – “The parties in this case should not forget that both parents have common responsibilities, most importantly been together would be an ideal case but even if they are separated they still have to helm the primary responsibility of upbringing and development of the child. For this, the child requires the love, affection and quality time to be spent with both the parents. Leaving apart the acrimony between the parties before me, at this stage the most important focus should be aimed at the development of the child…”
“What is important to be seen is whether the child has love and affection towards the parents rather than the other way round,” the judge observed.
This is a case of a couple who had a child in the year 2015, and in the year 2016, the couple took the divorce. The woman initiated the process for a divorce with also included applications for custody and maintenance. During the pendency of the divorce proceedings, the family court granted the father overnight access to the child from May 17 to 30, 2022.
This was challenged by the mother in High Court through the present case.
“If the Petitioner has a genuine apprehension then such an apprehension has to be backed by cogent material… There is not a singular incident that I have came across while reading the entire record to compel me to believe that the apprehension of the Petitioner is well founded. Just as the Petitioner is the mother of the child it should not be forgotten that the Respondent is his father and from the record it is clearly gathered that he is a doting father,” the Court noted.
“There was no trust deficit between the two or any fear shown by the child.”, the judge recorded in the order.
The child was permitted to remain with the father from May 24 to June 5.
As a precautionary measure, the father was directed not to take the child outside of India for any trip or holiday.
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