PANAJI
In an ongoing child custody battle between US citizen parents in Goa, the Bombay High Court at Goa has stressed that a child should not be treated as an object in disputes over parental visitation rights.
During the hearing of a writ petition on the custody dispute regarding the division of the five-year-old’s school vacation period, Justice Bharat Deshpande emphasized that the well-being of the child must always come first.
“A child cannot be considered as a toy for the purpose of compensating parents for their lost visitation rights. Child has to be treated as a human being and the most important aspect is the best interest of the child which has to be of paramount importance…” the Court observed.
The High Court critiqued an earlier decision by the trial court wherein the father was granted additional visitation time to compensate for previously lost visitation rights. This decision, it argued, was not in the child’s best interest, particularly considering tender age.
“For a child of such tender age, the presence of the mother is of utmost importance. However, it cannot be ignored that the father also needs to be considered for custody and visitation rights… It would be appropriate to equally divide the period of vacation amongst parents during the child’s school vacation period,” it sternly added.
The High Court ruled that the kindergarten student’s eleven-week vacation from June 16 to September 1 should be divided equally between the parents. As a result, the father will have custody for five and a half weeks while the mother will have custody for the remaining five and a half weeks.
“Child needs love and affection from both the parents as well as their respective family members…Accordingly, five and half weeks is granted to the father to enjoy summer vacation with the child whereas the remaining five and half weeks is granted to the mother,” reads the order.
The child, also a US citizen, was born in Paris, France. As there was a marital discord between the parents, the mother left Paris along with the child and moved to the US. The child's father filed proceedings before California Court for the custody of the minor and was by ex-parte order granted custody of the child.
Subsequently, he along with the child arrived in India followed by the mother who filed proceedings by way of Habeas corpus. Earlier proceedings were filed before the Mapusa Court along with an application for custody of the child after which the matter was filed before the high court for custody during the vacation period.
