BHOPAL: Citing references from Valmiki Ramayana, a bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Indore has refused to send a 10-year-old girl to Canada to join her father.
While dismissing a habeas corpus petition filed by the girl’s father, the MP HC’s Indore’s double judge bench of Justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Binod Kumar Dwivedi quoted the Sanskrit verse “Janani Janmabhoomischa Swargadapi Gariyasi” (Mother and motherland are greater than heaven) to underscore the significance of the maternal bond and the child’s connection to her current environment.
The petitioner had sought an order to send the girl to Canada and hand over custody to him as per an order passed by the Family Court of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario (Canada).
Notably, the girl’s parents were married in Maharashtra in 2014 and subsequently moved to the United States. The daughter was born in Chicago in 2016 and received US citizenship by birth before they moved to Toronto, Canada.
The woman came to India with her daughter in January 2022 and, instead of returning, enrolled the child in a school in Indore. This led to a dispute between the couple, with the husband demanding that the child be sent back to Canada.
Following the breakdown of the relationship, the father obtained a custody order from the Family Court of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario. Seeking to enforce this order, he filed a habeas corpus petition before the Indore bench of the MP High Court, demanding the girl be handed over to him and repatriated to Canada.
The respondent to the habeas corpus petition (the girl’s mother) maintained that the child’s welfare was best served in her current environment in Indore. The MP HC observed that a child’s welfare is paramount, while citing a Supreme Court order.
Child’s welfare paramount
Observing that a child’s welfare is paramount, the MP HC cited an SC order and stated, “The existence of a foreign court order is only one of the factors. The welfare of the child remains paramount.”