Bombay HC gives 6-year-old's custody to adoptive parents, says they are in better financial position

Bombay High Court.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court (HC) on Friday upheld a family court order which had refused to grant custody of a 6-year-old boy to his poor biological parents, observing that the child would be better off with his financially viable adoptive parents, a childless couple from Nagpur.

A division bench of justice AS Chandurkar and justice NB Suryawanshi said there was sufficient evidence to prove that the adoptive parents were in a better position to take care of the child, stated a report in Hindustan Times.

"They (adoptive parents) are taking care of his health, education, intellectual development and are giving him favourable surroundings and they are imbibing moral and physical values in the child," said the bench. "In our opinion, they are in a better position to look after the child," they added.

The observation came in the view of the fact that the adoptive parents were from a business family and the adoptive mother was a practicing doctor, whereas the biological father, an autorickshaw driver, lacked a steady source of income.

Besides, HC noted, the auto-driver was married and has two children, and the child in question was born out of his extra-marital relationship with another woman, who later joined his family and also delivered another girl child.

The boy was born on August 30, 2014, at a private hospital in Nagpur. The next day, the child and his mother were discharged from the hospital. The father of the unwed mother, however, could not take his daughter and her illegitimate child to his home because of social constraints.

Five days after the delivery, the newborn was diagnosed with jaundice. The mother's father then decided to give the child to his employer's son and his wife as they were childless.

In February 2015, the biological mother again came in contact with the auto driver when she stepped out for medical treatment. She then joined his company and started demanding custody of the 6-year-old. After the adoptive parents refused to part with custody of the child, in May 2015, they moved the family court at Nagpur seeking his custody on the ground of being his biological parents and contending that adoption was alien to Islamic Law.

The adoptive parents also filed a counter-petition for their appointment as guardians of the child.

Two years later the family court rejected the biological parents' claim and appointed the adoptive parents as guardians of the child. The biological parents then appealed in HC against the family court order.

The HC on Friday dismissed the appeal primarily because the auto driver lacked steady income and had the responsibility to maintain two wives and three children. Besides, he was residing in a tin-shed house.

While dismissing the appeal, HC also took into consideration that the child was handed over to the adoptive parents from the 5th day of his birth and since then the child was nurtured and brought up by them. "The child is now six years of age and naturally he is mentally and emotionally attached to them (adoptive parents). The child has developed a bond with them," said HC.

"They both appear to be in a position to look after him and to provide adequate facilities in a proper and congenial manner," said the bench. "In case the child's custody is handed over to biological parents, it would cause emotional turmoil to the child. He will be uprooted from the present family and the surroundings in which he is brought up and will be required to go in alien surroundings and circumstances, in which it would be difficult for him to adjust," the court added.