CHENNAI: A division bench of Madras High Court has expressed shock and anguish over the manner a US citizen mother, currently staying in Chennai, is refusing to hand over the custody of the two minor children to their father as per the orders of the court.
Armed with favourable orders, the father, who is also a US citizen, tried to meet his children in the presence of a dozen police personnel on March 9 at the house of the woman’s father in Chennai but was denied access in violation of the court orders.
When the contempt of court petition and a sub-appeal came up before the bench of Justices S Vaidyanathan and N Anand Venkatesh on Monday, senior counsel G Rajagopalan assisted by advocate Sunita Kumari submitted that his client Kiran Chava was prevented from meeting his children by the mother Usha Kiran Anne disobeying the orders of the court.
He said the woman was taking a defiant stand and not complying with the orders.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Kilpauk in Chennai, submitted a status report detailing the efforts made to assist Kiran Chava to meet his two children and the adverse reaction of the respondent, her father and brother.
"Only after four hours, the police team led by an Assistant Commissioner (AC) were allowed inside her house premises, but the father and the brother of the respondent woman “behaved very rudely and started abusing the petitioner and also the police team,” the report stated.
It further said that the woman turned up at the house along with three advocates later in the evening and started arguing with the petitioner and the police.
“When the petitioner requested her to show the children and cooperate, she denied him access, and instead, locked the children on the first floor of the house in the dark,” the police told the court.
When the petitioner tried to move up the stairs to see the children, the woman blocked him and called the police “hooligans”, besides threatening them of filing cases against them.
On March 11 and 13 too, the police assisted the petitioner to see his children and execute the order of the court but the efforts went in vain as the woman had taken a defiant and belligerent stand, the status report filed through additional public prosecutor Gokulakrishnan narrated.
The police also could not secure the woman and her children to produce them before the court on March 13 as per the orders of the division bench but it could not do so because of her defiance.
Pointing out the orders passed on a habeas corpus petition and the contempt petitions directing the respondent woman to hand over the custody of the children to the father, the bench expressed shock over the way she has been disobeying the orders without bothering about the interests of the children whose passports have already expired.
Meanwhile, V Prakash, a senior counsel, representing the woman, submitted that the Supreme Court had posted her petition to Friday and directed the police not to take any coercive action till then. Subsequently, the bench posted the matter to Friday.
Kiran Chava and Usha Kiran Anne both US citizens were married in 1999 and had two children. Later, after clashes, Usha brought her children back to India in 2020. She did not return despite repeated requests and legal notices from her husband.