“There is no law which can deprive a mother of her child because of AIDS,” Justice Geeta Mittal said when the counsel appearing for the in-laws contended that custody of the child could not be given to their daughter-in-law as she was an AIDS patient.

“You are only grandparents while she is the mother. She is already suffering, why do you want to make her suffer more by depriving custody of her child,” Justice Mittal said.

The court rejected the contentions of father-in-law Ram Gopal Verma and other members of his family and directed them to bring the child before it on Tuesday when custody of child would be handed over to the mother.

The in-laws then pointed out that Sunita Verma,  was suffering from the disease prior to marriage and it would badly influence  the child. The court, however, said that the disease was not inflicted only through physical relation but also due to blood transfusion. Earlier, Verma, 26, was allegedly thrown out of her in-laws home barely 13-days after her husband died due to AIDS. She alleged that her son, who is not infected with HIV, was forcibly taken away by her in-laws, the day when the last rites of her husband were performed.