HC orders Pune woman to handover custody of 8-yr-old daughter to US-based husband

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday directed a 33-year-old woman from Pune to hand over custody of her 8-year-old daughter to her estranged husband based in the United States. The child was born in the US in 2016 but was brought to India unilaterally by her mother in December 2023, which the court disapproved of. It allowed the husband’s petition, observing the child would have better prospects growing up in the US as it was a developed country, and she was a US citizen.

“The mother’s act of suddenly removing Miss ‘R’ to India certainly detached her from her daily routine, emotional bond with her friends and mainly with the father. Such a disconnect is always traumatic and painful for a child of such a tender age,” said the division bench of justice AS Gadkari and justice Shyam Chandak.

The couple got married in January 2015 in Pune and moved to the US, where her husband had been working since 2007. After their daughter was born in June 2016, they purchased a house and the woman took up a job. But they began drifting apart after that, and in September 2023, when they got separated, the husband approached the district court in Mecklenburg county seeking custody of his daughter.

Whilst the spouses were following a temporary parenting plan agreed upon before the district court, the husband alleged that on December 6, 2023, the woman suddenly removed her daughter from school in North Carolina and brought her to India without informing him the next day. Once in India, she got a criminal case registered against her husband in Navi Mumbai and filed a petition seeking guardianship of her daughter. This prompted her husband to seek legal recourse in India.

On February 7, the husband approached the high court seeking custody of his minor daughter. In support of his claim, he submitted the district court’s order from the US dated January 19, 2024, granting him permanent custody of the girl child.

On Wednesday, the high court allowed his petition, also considering that he was financially better placed than his wife and it might be challenging for her to provide the same amenities to the child that she would enjoy in the US.

The court rejected the woman’s contention that the husband had withheld her immigration documents with an intention to get her repatriated to India, saying since she was already contesting the husband’s custody plea before the county court, she could have taken legal recourse for her documents as well.

It also disapproved her conduct of unilaterally bringing their daughter to India and initiating multiple legal proceedings against her husband, saying she “resorted to this method of litigation...so that reasonable time is consumed in taking that litigation to its logical end” which would result in “Miss ‘R’ developing her roots in India to some extent”.

The court directed the woman to hand over custody of the girl child to her husband on Friday and all her school documents on May 14, so that he can take her to the US. The bench also clarified that if the woman choses to return to the US, she will have to comply with the Mecklenburg court orders.