Chennai woman wins Indo-US custody battle for only son
CHENNAI:
A Chennai-based software engineer won her only son's custody after the
Madras high court on Tuesday refused to take cognizance of an interim
order of the Superior Court of California, which had granted the
permanent custody of the boy to his US-based father, also an engineer.
The boy was born in September 2008 when the couple were working in the
US. While he was barely 15 months old, the family came to India for a
visit, but only the boy and his father returned to the US, as the mother
could not get H1B working visa. The father had a green card and the boy
was a US citizen by birth. In 2011, the man and his son came to India
but the mother was not informed. However, while they were on their way
back, they were made to return from Singapore because the mother had
lodged a police complaint and many relatives of the father had been
detained. Since then, the boy has been in with his mother.
The
father, who went back to the US, moved the court in California, which
granted him permanent custody of the boy. The man then approached HC
seeking to enforce the order.
But, Justice Pushpa
Sathyanarayana picked holes in the father's case, and ruled that the boy
will remain with the mother. "Though the father invoked the
jurisdiction of the foreign court, he has not obtained any substantive
order in his favour," she said.
Pointing out that the US court
order restrains the mother from removing the child from the state of
California, the judge said, "It is unenforceable, because the child on
the relevant date was in the custody of the mother in India." Though he
was a green card holder, became a US citizen later, and obtained green
cards for his parents, the boy's father never sponsored his own wife,
she said.
Pointing out that the mother had accompanied the
father and the child to the airport to see them off when she could not
travel for want of visa on November 19, 2009, the judge said: "That
being so, it is surprising how he can file a case before the foreign
court on the ground of abduction/kidnapping...the question of kidnapping
does not arise." Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Chennai-woman-wins-Indo-US-custody-battle-for-only-son/articleshow/48409036.cms
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