Court changes its stance, grants custody of minor girl to mother

In a unique case, the Bombay High Court that had earlier sent a minor girl to an Ashram changed its stance and reunited the girl with her mother.

The HC changed its stance only after perusing a ‘positive’ report submitted by the Thane police.

A Division Bench presided over by Justice Ranjit More and Justice Sarang Kotwal heard a habeas corpus petition filed by Abbas Rasekhinejed. He had sought directions to the Thane police to produce his minor daughter, who he claimed was abducted by his own wife.

According to Rasekhinejed, his wife was unable to conceive and the couple then decided to use the in-vitro fertilisation procedure. The procedure succeeded and the couple gave birth to the girl in January 2013. He claimed that his wife started ill-treating the minor girl and in 2014 fled with the daughter to some unknown place.

Since then, Rasekhinejed has been running from pillar to post to bring back his daughter as he claimed that she was ‘untraceable’. However, all his efforts were in vain and accordingly in 2015, he petitioned the HC.

With over two years of continuous litigation and failure of the Mumbra Police to trace the child, Justice More directed the Thane Crime Branch to look into the case. Soon, the minor girl was traced in Gujarat along with her mother and the duo were produced before the court in April this year.

However, there were a series of allegations and counter allegations from both the sides which led the court to keep the duo in Shanti Sadan Mahila Vastigruha, Ulhasnagar for some time. It was in May, when the judges interacted wit the father and the mother and also perused the reports submitted by the police and the Ashram.

After considering the background of the case, the judges were then of the prima facie opinion that ‘it would be in the interest of the child’ to admit her in good in-house school or institution where all her needs would be taken care of.

However, in the recent hearing, a fresh report was placed before the bench that disclosed that the mother was taking proper care of her minor daughter by doing household works.