Citing Mother's Conduct Of 'Fleeing' With Another Man Sans Divorce, Allahabad HC Hands Over Minor's Custody To Father

The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday directed that custody of a minor child be handed over to the father, citing the mother's alleged actions of eloping with another man without seeking a formal divorce from her husband. A bench of Justice Saurabh Srivastava observed that the future of the minor child, a budding citizen of a glorious country, cannot be permitted to be taken care of by 'such a mother' who fled away with a person without divorcing her husband."Considering the arguments raised by learned counsel for parties and the statement rendered by petitioner no.1, the only point of consideration available before this Court, is to secure the future of petitioner no.2 (corpus) who is minor child and budding citizen of this glorious country, the future of the country cannot be permitted to taking care of by such a mother who fled away with a person without having proper recourse of law in shape of seeking divorce from petitioner no.3," the single judge remarked. With this, the single judge partly allowed the habeas corpus plea moved by the father (petitioner no. 3/Suraj Kumar) seeking custody of his wife (petitioner no. 1/Jagriti) and his son (petitioner no.2/ Suraj Kumar (corpus). It was his case that his wife and his son were in the illegal custody of respondent no. 7. However, before the Court, petitioner no. 1 (wife) claimed that she and her child (petitioner no. 2) reside with respondent no.7 of her own will. She, however, admitted that petitioner no. 3 is the father of the child in question. The counsel for the petitioner no. 3 (Husband/Father) argued that his client has adequate financial means to take care of the upbringing of his child, and the future of corpus cannot be put into the lurch only on the grounds of fantasy and fancy culture adopted by petitioner no.1 (wife/mother). Considering the arguments raised by counsel for parties and the statement rendered by petitioner no.1, the Court stressed that the minor child can't be left with the woman who fled away with a person without having proper recourse of law in the shape of seeking divorce from petitioner no.3. In view of this, the court directed the Sub-Inspected who produced the corpus before the Court to hand over the custody of petitioner no. 2/minor child to his father/petitioner no.3, forthwith by verifying the identity of petitioner no.3 through his counsel. Accordingly, the petition was allowed partly. Case title - Jagriti And 2 Others vs. State Of Up And 6 Others 2025 LiveLaw (AB) 35 Case citation: 2025 LiveLaw (AB) 35 Click here ToRead/Download Order

Citing Mother's Conduct Of 'Fleeing' With Another Man Sans Divorce, Allahabad HC Hands Over Minor's Custody To Father

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