Blitz Bureau
THE Supreme Court has held that in child custody cases, a father’s right to visit cannot be enforced at the cost of the child’s health and well-being. A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and PB Varale made the observation while altering interim visitation arrangements made with respect to a child caught in a custody battle between her estranged parents.
The Madras High Court had earlier ordered the child’s mother to bring the child from Madurai to Karur every week so that the father may interact with the child for four hours each Sunday. The mother challenged this order, stating that it affected the child’s health. The Supreme Court modified this arrangement by asking the father to meet his daughter in Madurai instead, where the mother and daughter resided.
The child’s parents had married in 2021. The child’s mother moved a plea for divorce in 2023, accusing her husband of cruelty and domestic violence. The husband then moved a plea before the family court seeking visitation rights while the divorce proceedings were pending. The family court allowed this plea and ordered his estranged wife (the child’s mother) to bring the child to Karur (where the child’s father resided) every Sunday for two hours.
Dissatisfied with this arrangement, the child’s mother appealed to the Madras High Court. The High Court held that the man, being a natural guardian, was entitled to visitation rights. The High Court also modified the family court’s order to allow four-hour visits every Sunday.
The child’s mother subsequently approached the Supreme Court, contending that the High Court’s order did not adequately consider the child’s best interests.
