Bombay High Court Judge Justice SC Gupte said that the NRI mother can apply for guardianship of 9-year-old boy but it is subject to the child’s willingness “to be her ward," the Hindustan Times reported.
The child is living with his paternal aunt. His aunt and her husband were appointed his guardians after his father died from Cancer in 2014.
The child’s parents lived in Nashville at Tennessee, USA. He was sent to live with his relatives in India in January 2010. It is a practice among some NRIs to bring their children to India to live for the first few years.
But his father was diagnosed with cancer and died in April 2014. During this time, child lived with his paternal aunt. The mother stayed in the US.
In 2015, the aunt and her husband asked high court to appoint them as child’s guardians as they wanted to admit him to school. His mother opposed their plea but lost. In September 2016, another high court judge denied her the custody.
Now, HC has directed the aunt and her husband to facilitate regular contact between the mother and the child via skype and other mediums.
“I do not think that it is possible or even reasonable to pluck a child of eight from one country and plant him in another wholly alien environment overnight,” Justice Gautam Patel said.
Follow
