NEW DELHI: "I was beaten up. I was locked in the bathroom for hours. I don't want to speak to my mother", a son told the Supreme Court on Monday while recollecting his "traumatic childhood", whose estranged parents are embroiled in divorce litigation for two decades.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant, which tried to persuade the child to talk to his mother, made an effort by talking to the parents and the son in the chambers for over 45 minutes.
The top court was hearing a matrimonial dispute case in which the husband has been seeking a divorce from his wife for the past two decades and is opposed by his wife.
When the counsel, representing the mother, told the bench that she be allowed to talk to his son as he stays with his father.
Justice Chandrachud asked the son to talk to his mother.
The child, now 27-years-old, who was present in the court in person, told the court that his mother used to beat him at the age of seven and used to lock him up in the bathroom.
Recollecting his traumatic childhood, the son said, "It brings back my traumatic memories by talking to her. Which mother beats her seven-year-old Son? I was locked in the bathroom for hours when she used to go out. My father never raised a hand on me".
Counsel for the mother said that the son was telling a scripted tale and nothing as such happened.
The bench said that he is a 27-year-old boy, he has his own understanding and he cannot be forced to narrate a tale which is scripted.
Advocate Archana Pathak Dave, appearing for the husband, said that the mother of the child never moved the court to seek her son's custody.
Dave said that her client only wants that a quietus to be given to the decade-old dispute and divorce to be granted by the court by exercising power under Article 142.
Counsel for the mother of the child said that she does not want to live with the stigma of being a divorcee.
The couple had entered into wedlock in 1988 and in 2002, the husband sought divorce on the ground of cruelty and started living separately.
The bench said that it would again meet the parents and the son after a month.
"You know these matrimonial matters take time", the bench said after interacting with the parents and the child.