The Kerala High Court recently criticized a family court judge for using distasteful language in an order granting sole custody of a minor child to the father.
A division bench of Justices A Muhamed Mustaque and Sophy Thomas noted that the family court judge had made some unpleasant comments against the minor child’s mother.
In particular, the family court was found to be reached on the conclusion that the mother had eloped with another person for pleasure and the “wayward life” opted by her would prejudice the welfare of the children.
The High Court of Kerala stated that the language used by the family court in its order was highly condemnable.
The HC further said, “What has disturbed us is the language used by the Family Court Judge. Merely for the reason that a woman is found in the company of another male, Family Court came to the conclusion that she went for pleasure with someone else. The highly distasteful language depicts the mindset of an officer of high rank in the district judiciary.”
The Court said this while dealing with a plea moved by the mother of the child challenging the order of the family court.
The child’s father alleged that the mother had left the matrimonial house to live in a company of another man. On the other hand, the mother of the child claimed that she left the house due to incidents of domestic violence.
In this context, the judges added that just because a woman was found to be with another man, it cannot be assumed that she was having an affair or she can be a bad mother.
The High Court stated, “There may be many circumstances when one may have to leave the matrimonial home. If a woman is found with another person, it cannot lead to an assumption that she went for pleasure. The moral judgement reflected in such orders would defeat the objective of inquiry in the matters of child custody.”
The bench of the judges also emphasized that it is not moral judgement but the welfare of the child that should be a decisive factor in the disputes pertaining to child custody.
The Court further said, “A mother may be morally bad in the societal sense, but that mother may be good for the child as far as the welfare of the child is concerned. The so-called morality is created by society based on their own ethos and norms and should not necessarily reflect in a contextual relationship between a parent and child.”
In this case, the Court decided that it would be better to grant cyclical custody of the child to the parents.
Hence, the High Court revoked the order of the family court and ordered the parents to take turns, on a weekly basis to ensure better caring of the child.
Source: https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/kerala-high-court-condemns-distasteful-language-family-court-against-mother-child-custody
