The Chief Justice of India has successfully resolved a child custody dispute within a span of two weeks. In a display of compassion, Justice DY Chandrachud instructed the additional solicitor general to communicate with the parents and the child. During the final hearing, he even took the time to ask the eight-year-old about his school life in Hindi.
To protect their privacy, the names of the parents and child involved in the case have been withheld. The couple got married in 2014, but their marriage began to encounter problems just a year later. According to the woman’s petition, their son was born in July 2015. Shortly after his birth, she was asked to leave her matrimonial home because her husband had quit his job, and their family members claimed they could not support her and the infant.
After experiencing various challenges, the husband served her with a divorce notice in 2021. While the divorce was pending, he took the child earlier this year, promising to return him to his mother in Lucknow on June 26. However, when he failed to fulfill his promise and ignored her calls, the mother traveled to Dehradun to find the boy. To her dismay, she discovered that her husband and his family had relocated to Delhi.
Desperate to locate her child, she filed a petition in the Delhi High Court requesting his production. However, during the hearings, she learned that the boy had been taken to Dehradun again, outside the jurisdiction of the court. Ultimately, she approached the Supreme Court and requested their intervention in locating her child.
On October 17, during a hearing of the case, the Chief Justice and his bench listened to the mother’s side. Recognizing the significance of an eight-year-old’s future, Justice Chandrachud asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to engage with the parents and the child to explore the possibility of a resolution.
During the subsequent hearing on Monday, Ms. Bhati informed the court that she had invited the parties to her residence and held discussions with them. They all reached an agreement whereby the child would reside with the mother for two years, and the parents would make a joint decision regarding the child’s future thereafter.
Expressing satisfaction with the agreement, the bench concluded the matter and granted the parents a divorce as well.
