New Delhi: Noting that a parent can’t be allowed to take advantage in a custody matter by flouting binding judicial directions, Delhi High Court has directed a woman to hand over her 10-year-old son to his father in Canada.The boy has been living in India for six years but the high court said there was deliberate disobedience of a Canadian court’s order which granted temporary custody in favour of the father.A bench of justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar in a recent order observed that the child, a US citizen, was brought to India from Canada by his mother in October 2019 without the consent of his father, who then approached the concerned court in Canada and obtained an order for temporary custody in his favour in March 2020.The high court directed that in case the mother failed to hand over the custody of the minor child, the father shall be entitled to seek police assistance for implementation of this order as it acted on a habeas corpus petition by the father.Appearing for the father, advocate Prabhjit Jauhar submitted that the mother had his son in illegal custody and in flagrant defiance of the foreign court’s ruling.The bench rejected the mother’s contention that having spent six years in India, the child was now “firmly rooted” in India. It further observed the mother “fully participated” in the proceedings before the foreign court whose order was a “valid and reasoned judicial determination”. “This court is therefore of the considered opinion that the ends of justice, the sanctity of judicial process, the principles governing transnational custody disputes, and above all, the paramount welfare of the minor child, warrant restoration of temporary custody in terms of the order passed by the competent Canadian court,” the judgment stated.“Respondent No. 2 shall return the minor child to the jurisdiction of the competent Canadian court within a period of six weeks from the date of this judgment by handing over temporary custody of the minor child to the petitioner,” it ordered.The court observed that the father demonstrated financial capability and stability, and there was no material on record to deny the restoration of the temporary custody in terms of the Canadian court’s order.
