Indore: Conducting a hearing in the traditional manner after a gap of two-and-half months when video-conferencing was the norm due to the Coronavirus-induced lockdown, the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed that custody of a US-born 2-year-old boy be given to his mother.
The HC's Indore bench of Justice SC Sharma was on Monday hearing a habeas corpus filed by the boy's 30-year-old mother who is locked in a matrimonial dispute with her husband.
The child, who has been living with his father's parents in Gwalior, was present in the court, and so was the woman and her in-laws.
A detailed copy of the order was available on Tuesday.
In its judgement, HC said, "The child immediately after seeing his mother ran towards the mother and they were observed by this court. The child is certainly more than happy with the mother."
"They are playing together inside the courtroom, the child, later on, went out of the courtroom with the mother and the child in fact has shown more affection towards the mother than the grandparents," it said.
"Nothing equals a mother's love. Mother's love for her child cannot be described in words," it added.
The counsel for the child's paternal grandparents had told HC that an Ohio court in the USA had passed an order on the husband's plea alleging domestic violence against the woman, and in light of this (US) order, the child's grandparents have rights to be his guardian.
The single bench, however, rejected the argument and said "This court has carefully gone through the so-called injunction order. It is a petition preferred by the husband before the Franklin County Common Pleas Court against the wife.
"There is no such injunction order granted by any court situated in the United States of America directing custody of the child to be with the father. The so-called injunction order is also an ex-parte order. The injunction order nowhere mentions anything about the child."
The woman's lawyer, Hitesh Sharma, said she returned to her Indore-based maternal home in December 2019 due to the marital discord.
Sharma said when his client found out a few days ago that her husband had left their two-year-old child at his parents' house in Gwalior, she approached High Court.
The HC was also told by the woman's lawyer that the child's grandparents were not able to take care of him as they were old, and that, despite repeated pleas, she was not being allowed to meet her son.
(PTI REPORT)
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