Can’t force mother to pick between kid & career: Bombay HC – Times of India

MUMBAI: Observing that a mother “cannot be asked to choose between her child and her career” and a family court failed to consider that an estranged mother was vested with the right to development, the Bombay high court allowed a woman to take her minor daughter to Poland where she has been offered a senior position.
The mother, an engineer, has been living separately with her nine-year-old child since 2015. The HC directed the father to give his no objection as he also has child access and visitation rights.
The mother had moved HC and through her counsel Abhijit Sarwate sought permission to relocate to Krakow, Poland, with her child, where she would stay for two years as she has better career prospects.
HC said, “The custody of the minor girl is with the mother, who is the natural guardian, and considering her age (9 yrs), the girl must accompany her mother, particularly when it is the case of the petitioner (wife) that she has single-handedly brought up the child, on being separated from the husband.” The father too is “naturally concerned about the child’s welfare” and in the “conundrum” they face, “I do not think that the court can refuse the job prospects to a mother… and she cannot be deprived of this opportunity,” said Justice Bharati Dangre in her order of July 8.
Sarawate said the “right to development is a basic human right, which is recognised” by the Supreme Court and cannot be denied to the mother. She undertook to give access to the father and take her mother—child’s maternal grandmother—with her to Poland.
Justice Dangre said the father, represented by counsel Mayur Khandeparkar, is “pained” by his daughter’s relocation, while the wife is desperate to take the job in Poland given her excellent career graph. She added the issue “is very sensitive considering the deep love both parents have” towards the child.
HC said, “A balance has to be drawn between the interests of both parties” by ensuring the paramount consideration to the child’s welfare in having a “sense of security.”
Justice Dangre said, “It is it is always in the interest of the child to have the presence of both the parents while he or she grows up, but here is a situation when the parents are at loggerheads and the child is with the mother with a limited access being granted to the father, which he must avail qualitatively. The petitioner is the mother of the child and has been continuously with the child since her birth and though a working woman, has struck a balance between her work and care and affection of the child and ensured that she enjoys a healthy upbringing.”
HC said the husband’s suggestion that he and his family would take care of the child in India is “not viable” as the girl has always lived with her mother, barring a few hours exclusively in his company. It added, “At the same time, the child has a strong bond with the father and it is required to be nurtured and continued,” and directed vacation overnight access for the father in India and additional unsupervised access if he travels to Poland.
The father’s advocate Ajinkya Udane later said they are now in the process of filing an appeal before the Supreme Court to challenge the HC order.