MUMBAI: In a peculiar custody dispute, a 37-year-old mother is fighting her two brothers-in-law in court for the guardianship of her three minor children. The Bombay High Court has recently granted her relief by transferring the case from the Thane district court to the district court in Gadhinglaj, Kolhapur.
The woman, a homemaker, lost her husband to illness in 2023. She has since been living with her three-year-old son at her parents’ home in Kolhapur. Her brothers-in-law, however, have filed a petition under section 7 of the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, in the Thane District Court seeking to be declared the legal guardians of all three children.
In her plea, the mother alleged that her brothers-in-law, whom she described as “influential people”, had “illegally taken away” her 14-year-old daughter and five-year-old son from her custody. She further claimed that the men had demanded she marry one of them if she wanted to be reunited with her older two children.
Her lawyer, Sanjay Dhadam, told the court that one brother-in-law, aged 46, had been “trying to force her to get married to him”, while the other, aged 54, had separated from his wife following a domestic violence case.
Arguing that she could not afford to travel nearly 550 km, a 10 to 12-hour journey, from Kolhapur to Thane for hearings, the mother urged the court to transfer the case. The High Court noted that despite being served notice in April, the brothers-in-law did not appear before it.
Allowing the transfer, justice Patil also relied on section 6 of the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, which determines the guardian of a Hindu minor. “In my view, the applicant, who is the mother of three minor children, is the natural guardian after the death of her husband,” Justice Patil observed, adding that the custody petition should have been filed in Kolhapur, where she currently resides.
In their petition before the Thane district court, the uncles claimed that the children had “no affection” towards their mother and would receive a “better education, life and social status” in their custody. They also said in their petition that it was unacceptable to them that the children would be adopted by another man if their mother remarried.