The Punjab & Haryana High Court while upholding the visitation rights granted to the father of a 10-year-old daughter, who was dependent on substances observed that a mother or father, maybe morally bad in the societal sense, but that parent may be good for the child and the so-called morality is created by society, based on their own ethos and norms and should not necessarily reflect in a contextual relationship between the parent and child.
Brief Facts:
The present revision petition was filed by a father who was seeking custody of his minor daughter after the lower court had only granted visitation rights and refused to hand over the custody of the minor daughter to his father.
Observations of the Court:
The court stated that in a custody tussle, the matter is to be decided, not on consideration of the legal rights of the parties, but on the sole and predominant criterion of what would be best to serve the interest and welfare of the child and the various provisions of the Guardians and Wards Act, makes it manifestly clear that the paramount consideration, is the welfare of the minor child and not the statutory rights of the parents. When the couples are at loggerheads and want to part ways, they may level extreme allegations against each other, so as to depict the other as unworthy, to have custody of the child.
Further, the court stated that even though it has been alleged that the father is dependent upon the chemicals and it was observed in the impugned order that rehabilitation as per the certificate, coming on record, for treatment, is incomplete and therefore, no ground is made for handing over the custody of the minor child to the father, but however, these observations so made ipso facto, do not make the father be a bad man and no conclusive opinion can be made about his being dependent upon chemicals. It was further stated that a mother or father, may be morally bad in the societal sense, but that parent may be good for the child and the so-called morality is created by society, based on their own ethos and norms and should not necessarily reflect in a contextual relationship between the parent and child.
Considering the tender age of the daughter the Court said she is in need of care from her mother, who can also sufficiently provide for the daughter, in the light of which the custody of the girlchild remained with the mother only, however, it was stated that the visitation rights are to be considered.
The decision of the Court:
The court allowed the petition and allowed visit once in fortnight for two hours
Case Title: X vs Y
Coram: Hon’ble Justice Archana Puri
Case No.: CR-7808-2018(O&M)
Advocate for the Applicant: Mr. Kanwaljit Singh and Mr. K.S. Brar
Advocate for the Respondent: Mr. Abhishek Sharma
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Picture Source : https://unsplash.com/s/photos/father-and-son
