Centre prepares law to check ‘inter-parental abduction’ of kids

IN THE ABSENCE OF A DOMESTIC LAW, CHILDREN OF SUCH NRIS BECOME VICTIMS OF THEIR PARENTS’ MARITAL DISPUTE

NEW DELHI: NRI Anita Singh (name changed), who forcibly brought her six-year-old daughter to India from UK against the wishes of the child’s father, was ordered by the Delhi high court last week to return with the child.

A UK court earlier directed Singh, who is involved in a marital dispute with her husband, to repatriate.

This was one of the few cases where an Indian court held that removal of a child from the place of her habitual residence was against her best interests.

In the absence of a domestic law on “inter-parental child abduction” in India, very often children of such NRIs, who have grown up abroad, become silent victims of their parents’ marital dispute when they are forcibly brought back to the country by one of the parents.

However, this is set to change. Like 90 countries that are signatories to the 1983 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Parental Child Abduction, forcible removal of a child, from a country where they are habitually residing to India, may soon become an offence.

The Union ministry of women and child development (WCD) has drafted the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction Bill, 2016, that once approved, will facilitate prompt return of any child under 16 years of age who has been “wrongfully removed to or retained in other state which is not his/her habitual residence”.

India is not a signatory to the Hague Convention.

The draft bill was readied following a reference from the Punjab and Haryana HC to the WCD ministry and the Law Commission to examine the issue.

“The intention of the proposed law is not to punish parents but to rebuild the family. In majority of the cases, such children, who have adapted to the culture of the country they are residing in, become very miserable once they are uprooted from there and brought to India,” said Anil Malhotra, international family law practitioner.

The bill will provide an enabling legislation to implement the provisions of the Hague convention. “Signing the convention will ensure enforcement of custody orders of foreign courts. At present, the parent takes advantage of the absence of a domestic law and knows if he/ she brings the child to India, it will be difficult to enforce the custody order of a foreign court,” Malhotra said.

The draft law mandates setting up of a central authority that an aggrieved parent can approach for return of a child who has been forcibly removed.