Can we force a 16-yr-old to talk to her Mom: Supreme Court

In today's world, can a sixteen-year-old girl be forced by the Court to interact with her mother when she feels secure with her father & doesn't want to talk to her mother, the Supreme Court asked the US-based mother who accused her estranged husband of poisoning the minds of her 2 daughters after surreptitiously fleeing with them to India, reports the news agency.

Appearing for the mother belonging to the Parsi community, senior lawyer Sidharth Luthra said the daughters were just 15 & 13 when her husband fled with them in 2019 after assuring a US court, where she had filed a divorce suit in 2017, that he would return within 2 weeks.

Since her husband fled to India with her daughters in 2019, it has been a struggle for the mother to even talk to her daughters over phone or video calls, senior lawyer Sidharth Luthra said.

Appearing for the husband, lawyer  Sidharth Bhatnagar, told the Court that one of the daughters has attained the age of majority & is studying abroad while the other is now 16. Since they do not want to interact with the mother, there is little the husband could do, he said. A bench said, "The youngest girl is 16 years old...anyone who is 16 year or above, decides what is good for her/him.

You think a father can tutor a 16-year-old?" The Court also asked the mother how many times had she attempted to interact with her daughters last year.

"We cannot hold their hand & force them to interact with their mother. The court can only decide whether the children have taken a conscious decision," the CJI-led bench said & asked the husband whether he could arrange for a videoconference with the daughters. Bhatnagar said no orders are required to be passed & that he would arrange for it voluntarily on Wednesday. Last year, the Bombay High Court too, after interacting with the 2 daughters, had rejected the woman's plea for custody of the children.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the LatestLaws staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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