Hyderabad: In a significant judgment, the Telangana High Court on Tuesday ruled that grandparents are entitled to meet their grandchildren staying with a single parent. A bench of Justice Kanneganti Lalitha of the Telangana High Court observed that grandparents play an important role in a child’s development.
The court made the observation while hearing a plea by a woman seeking the right to visit her granddaughter staying with her father after her mother’s death. “Grandparents play an important role in a child’s life which complements the role of the parents. Hence, they are entitled to have love and affection for the grandchild,” Justice Kanneganti Lalitha of the Telangana High Court observed.
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The judge said that the welfare of a child must be looked at from multiple perspectives. “If the father/mother is able to take care of the child, that alone cannot be the consideration. A child will evolve into a complete person based on his/her experience, the way she/he was taken care of by near and dear in life. Every child is entitled to a happy childhood.
The kind of love and affection, sense of security and warmth a grandchild derives from the presence of the grandparents is undoubtedly significant,” the judge said. In the instant case, the girl’s father, who had remarried after his first wife died, was denying his in-laws (maternal grandparents of the daughter), from meeting her.
The grandparents lodged a complaint against their son-in-law. The court said that the internal disputes between the parties should not have an adverse effect on the mental growth of the child. The court further said that if the upbringing is done with hatred, the child will not evolve into a good human being. “This will have a lifetime negative effect,” it said.
