The Bombay High Court will on February 12 decide whether the custody of an adopted minor girl child should be given to either of her estranged parents or to another family.
A division bench of Justices VM Kanade and Girish Kulkarni was hearing counter-appeals filed by a Goa-based woman and by her estranged Italian husband currently staying in Pune. In June 2010, the couple were granted joint guardianship of a two-and-a-half-years-old girl from a Pune adoption centre. A year later, the couple split and the wife held custody of the child.
In June 2011, the husband secured an order from a family court granting him the girl's custody, following which the child has been living with him. Aggrieved by this, the woman moved the high court seeking custody of the child and maintenance from her estranged husband.
The wife in her appeal contended the Child Adoption and Regulation Act is unequivocally clear that a single male would not be given a girl child in adoption.
The husband, however, opposed this and argued the child's welfare should be of paramount consideration. He alleged the child had lived in unhygienic conditions in his wife's house in Goa.
The bench on Wednesday said it would have to hear and decide the custody issue finally. "Bearing the child's best interests in mind, we would have to decide whether her custody should be handed over to either of the parents or to another family," the court said while posting the matter for hearing on February 12.
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