In child custody battle, Supreme Court allows father to meet son at temple, ashram

In child custody battle, Supreme Court allows father to meet son at temple, ashram

The Court allowed the man to take his son to the Amritapuri Ashram of Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi and the Padanayarkulangara Temple in Kerala’s Kollam.

The Supreme Court recently allowed a father in a custody battle to meet his son at an ashram and a temple in Kerala.

A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and PS Narasimha had on October 3 allowed the father to meet his child at a mall, while modifying a family court directive that allowed him to meet his son at Court premises.

On October 31, the Court modified its October 3 order and allowed the man to take his son to the Amritapuri Ashram of Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi and the Padanayarkulangara Temple in Kerala’s Kollam.

As allowed earlier, the father can also meet the child at the mall in Kollam.

Such an interim arrangement will continue till the family court disposes of the child custody case, the top court said.

The bench was hearing an appeal challenging the order of a family court and the Kerala High Court order.

Granting certain visitation rights to the father, the family court had asked him to exercise them between 11:00 am and 04:00 pm on Sundays in court premises. The High Court upheld the arrangement.

However, while modifying the order, the top court on October 3 had said that the environment in which child visitation rights are exercised is also important.

“We find that the repeated visitation rights in the Court premises, would also not be in the interest of the child as the environment during which the visitation rights are exercised, would also matter,” the bench had observed.

The Court today eventually disposed of the appeal on October 31 after modifying its October 3 order.