Mumbai:

While awarding custody of a nine-year-old girl to her mother, the Bombay High Court said adultery can be a ground for divorce but not for granting custody of a child.

On April 12, a bench of Justice Rajesh Patil dismissed a petition filed by the former MP’s son challenging an order passed by the family court in February 2023 , the order awarded custody of their daughter to the estranged wife.

The couple married in 2010 and their daughter was born in 2015. In 2019, the woman claimed she was kicked out of her home. However, the petitioner claimed that his wife left of her own free will.

The petitioner’s lawyer Indira Jaising submitted to the court that the woman had had multiple extramarital affairs and therefore it would not be appropriate to hand over custody of the children to her.

Justice Patil noted that the allegation of adultery would not create any impact or doubt when deciding the custody issue of the child.

“Not being a good wife does not necessarily mean that she is not a good mother. Adultery can be a ground for divorce, but it cannot be a ground for withholding custody,” the court noted.

In his guilty plea, the man claimed it was in the child’s best interests to live with him and his parents because she was unhappy with her mother and there had been some changes in her behavior.

Jaising told the court that the authorities of the girls’ school had written an email to the petitioner’s mother expressing concern over her behaviour.

However, the High Court rejected this argument and questioned why the school contacted the grandmother when her parents were well-educated.

It noted that the petitioner’s mother is a former MP who aspires to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

“As far as I know, there was no reason for the school authorities to inform the grandmother, who was a politician, about the girl’s issues because the child’s parents were present and well educated and, in fact, so was the child’s mother. The child was a doctor ,” the court said.

Justice Patil noted that the girl was only nine years old, a pre-pubescent age, and that in such custody matters, the court must put the welfare of the child first.

He said the girl was cared for by her grandmother and did well in school while her mother was raising her.

“Therefore, to the best of my knowledge, there is no basis for a change of custody from the wife to the husband,” the court said.

The bench directed the petitioner to hand over custody of their daughter to his wife by April 21.

In 2020, the woman filed a police complaint against her husband and in-laws, alleging harassment, assault and criminal intimidation. She claims her daughter was taken from her.

The woman also filed a complaint under the Domestic Violence Act before a magistrate court and an application before the family court seeking custody of her daughter.

The man also filed a petition in the Family Court seeking divorce from the woman and custody of their daughter.

In February 2023, the family court transferred custody of the girl to the mother and allowed visits to the father.

However, in February this year, when the girl went to her father’s residence for a weekend visit, the father refused to hand the child over to her mother.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)