Cuttack: Setting aside the order of a family court, the Orissa High Court has restored legal custody and guardianship of a minor to his father after the child’s mother died.
The court observed that “if no custody is granted, the court would be depriving both the child and the father of each other’s love and affection to which they are entitled.”
The couple had been married June 19, 2019, according to Hindu rites and customs, and lived peacefully until the mother’s death. The guardianship dispute arose only after the mother passed away; the child was then taken into the custody of his maternal grandfather.
The appellant (the father) had applied for guardianship before the Family Court, Bhadrak. On July 12, 2022, the family court rejected his petition because he failed to produce the minor child’s birth certificate and the death-certificate of his wife.
However, the High Court — in a judgment delivered by Justice Sanjay Kumar Mishra — held that the father could not be denied custody on such “technical grounds.” The court referred to the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, under which a father is the natural guardian of a minor child. It ruled that in view of the child’s welfare and the father’s right as natural guardian, the father’s petition should have been accepted.
The court noted there was no allegation of abuse or any matrimonial dispute while the mother was alive. The father’s claim over the child was legitimate. Justice Mishra said that after the mother’s death, for the welfare of the minor child — especially given the child’s tender age — custody should go to the natural father. He quashed the family court’s decision and restored guardianship to the father.
UNI
