Children pay heaviest price in custody battles: SC

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 18

Highlighting the plight of children caught in custody battles between their parents, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said they were always the losers and paid the heaviest price for no fault on their part as they got deprived of parental love and affection.

“In a custody battle, no matter which parent wins, but the child is always the loser and it is the children who pay the heaviest price as they are shattered when the court by its judicial process tells them to go with the parent whom he or she deems fit,” a Bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Ajay Rastogi said in a case of a Delhi couple which had been fighting a protracted legal battle since 2011.

The Bench said while deciding a child custody case, “primary and paramount consideration is always the welfare of the child” and “if the welfare of the child so demands, then technical objections cannot come in the way”.

The top court told the litigating parties to introspect and take stock of their deeds and find out a reasonable amicable solution of the on¬going matrimonial discord to secure peace and a better future.

It ordered that the interim arrangement ordered in September 2017 as to how the two children would spend their Dussehra, Diwali and winter vacations with each parent, and its subsequent directives would continue. Both children should be placed in a boarding school as it was not in their best interest to continue with either of their parents, it had ordered.

The Bench granted liberty to the parties to file independent proceedings for custody/guardianship of the minor children before appropriate forums and directed that the divorce petition filed by the husband should be decided by December 31, 2020.

“However, while deciding the welfare of the child, it is not the view of one spouse alone which has to be taken into consideration. The courts should decide the issue of custody on a paramount consideration which is in the best interest of the child who is the victim in the custody battle,” it said, adding rights of the child needed to be respected as he/she was entitled to love of both parents and breakdown of marriage did not signify the end of parental responsibility.

Courts should decide the issue of custody while keeping in mind the best interest of the child who was the “victim” in the custody battle, and if efforts to settle matrimonial dispute through the process of mediation did not fructify, then courts should make an endeavour to resolve it as expeditiously as possible because with every passing day the child paid a heavy price.

The grandparents too were deprived of love and affection of their children and grandchildren due to this matrimonial tussle, it noted.