Custody battle of Kumble's stepdaughter before SC

The custody battle for the stepdaughter of cricketer Anil Kumble has again reached the Supreme Court after her biological father approaching the apex court seeking direction to his former wife for handing over his daughter citing change in circumstances.

Kumar V. Jahgirdar, a businessman, has filed a petition before the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the Karnataka High Court that dismissed his claim for the custody of 14 year-old girl who is staying with Kumble and his wife Chetna. Jahgirdar’s advocate Prashant Bhushan said the matter will come up for hearing in the last week of July before the bench headed by Justice Tarun Chatterjee.

The SC in a ruling on January 31, 2004 had given the exclusive custody of the girl to Chetna from her previous marriage to Jahgirdar after a two-year litigation. Bhushan said the custody of a child is an interim decision and can be filed at any point after a decision. In the intervening period, Jahgirdar is married and has a family at home to take care of his daughter, said the petition. Jahagirdar was given the visitation rights to his daughter by the court.

The apex court last time had mentioned that Jahagirdar had no female member in his family to take care of his daughter.

Chetna and Kumble had been fighting for the custody of the girl ever since she was with them. The SC in its ruling had said the apprehensions expressed by the former husband against Kumble that he might poison the mind of the child and create ill-will towards the natural father was not borne out from record.

“On the contrary, Kumble, in his deposition, has made statements evincing a very cooperative and humane attitude on his part towards the problem of the estranged couple and the child. We find that apprehension expressed against Kumble is without foundation.”

The news of Chetna’s pregnancy also was a deciding factor for the apex court to uphold the high court order in 2004.

Upper Krishna project
The Supreme Court has directed the Karnataka government to pay at a rate of Rs 13.98 lakh per acre for the land acquired at Kanabur and Jainapur villages for the rehabilitation of the people from the locality that submerged under water at Upper Krishna project.
“We fix the market value of the acquired lands of the appellants at Rs 32.10 per sq ft,’’ declared the bench comprising Justices Tarun Chatterjee and V S Sirpurkar.

However, the court rejected the submission of Chandrashekhar and other petitioners, who claimed compensation at a rate of Rs 100.50 per sq ft awarded by the court in the case of Assistant Commissioner and  the LAO, Bijapur V Tukaram.

The land owners, whose land was taken over by the State government on August 15, 1998, are entitled to 30 percent solatium on the enhanced compensation and also interest on the amount.

By granting some additional benefits, the court said, “The appellants are also entitled to 12 per cent additional market value on the enhanced compensation from the date of issuance of the notification under section 4 (1) of the Land Acquisition Act, till the date of dispossession or till the date of award, whichever is earlier.’’