The Bombay High court has said the best interest of a minor cannot be only the love and care of the primary caregiver, the mother, and directed the woman to give her estranged husband the child’s custody.
A Division Bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri Godse was hearing a petition filed by the father of a three-and-half-year-old child living in the U.S. He sought directions to his estranged wife living in India that she and their child, who is a U.S. citizen, return to the country.
The couple got married in March 2010 and moved to the U.S. in June 2010 where they both got the green card. The child was born in December 2019 and the woman came to India with the child in December 2020 and told her estranged husband not to contact her. He then wrote a letter to the U.S. Embassy in India that his son, who is a U.S. citizen, was abducted and soon filed a habeas corpus petition in the High Court. The woman, on the other hand, initiated domestic violence and divorce proceedings against the man in different courts in India.
