High Court uses HCP to Decide Child Custody

A Habeas Corpus Petition (HCP) usually serves a narrow purpose of setting at liberty person/s from illegal detention. However, a division bench of Madras HC handled a Habeas Corpus Petition (HCP) ingeniously to address 2 issues – 1^st, to offer an interim settlement to a child custody battle, & 2^nd, to express concern over the way legal education is offered.

It was before the bench of Justice S Vaidyanathan & Justice N Anand Venkatesh that a Habeas Corpus Petition (HCP) was filed by S Pandiselvi for a direction to her husband to producer their 2 minor daughters before the court & handover their custody to her. She alleged that the children were kept under the care of her husband -- A Sundaramahalingam, a doctor -- against their wishes.

The judges said that in a habeas corpus petition, the court couldn't decide the permanent custody of children & the other issues that may arise out of the matrimonial dispute. However, they said, “taking note of the age of the children & that the children are interested in going along with their mother, who is the petitioner, as an interregnum, of the party, we direct the mother to retain the children in her custody. It is open to her husband to periodically & visit the children in a common place & he can also take the children out during holidays by intimating the petitioner & the jurisdictional police.”

During the hearing, it came to light that the petitioner-woman had joined a ‘correspondence law course’ in Tirupati, & that her husband also joined the law course. They also said that they used to attend 2 classes in a month & yet ‘completed’ the course in the year 2018.

Taking a judicial note of this submission, the judges said: “We don't want to say anything on the educational qualification said to have been obtained by both the petitioner & her husband. It is for the Bar Council to decide as to whether any enrolment can take place based on correspondence course. If it is a regular course, how the husband of the petitioner, who is an employee of a hospital at Madurai, is able to do law in Tirupati. He can't be in 2 states at a time. The Bar Council also need to check as to how attendance in those colleges are manipulated.”

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