AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court has dismissed a Pakistani citizen’s plea seeking custody of his 4-year-old son from his wife, who had brought the child to India. The HC said that apart from bare assertions about nationality, culture and values, the applicant did not have any evidence to prove that the custody of the child with the mother was illegal.
The couple married in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2019 and gave birth to a son the following year. On September 23, the woman came to India with her child on a tourist visa. She holds a Pakistani passport.
The woman’s husband claimed in a petition filed in the Supreme Court through a power of attorney that she brought her son to India illegally and stayed at her mother’s house in Surat.
After coming to India, she stopped contacting him. He fears for his children’s safety because his wife has hinted that she may not return to Pakistan in the future.
The man said in the petition that the child was in a foreign country and was being deprived of cultural value. The child was quarantined abroad, and the father believed his son was being forcibly imprisoned, so he filed a lawsuit Habeas Corpus Petitionhis lawyer suggested.
The HC was informed that the petitioner filed a petition before the Karachi Family Court on October 15 under the provisions of the Guardianship and Guardianship Act seeking custody of her son. The child custody matter will proceed ex parte and be determined. He was unable to serve the court notice on the woman as she was in India.
In addition, the child’s visa is valid until November 6.
The state counsel opposed the petition and argued that the child was in the custody of his biological mother and it could not be termed as unlawful imprisonment. There was no court order in favor of the husband.
Hearing the case, a bench of Justice Sangeeta Vishen and Justice Sanjeev Thaker said: “The minor is in the custody of his mother and therefore, it is difficult to believe in the welfare and well-being of the child. Best interests at stake are unacceptable.
