Supreme Court directs Bengaluru court to resolve child custody dispute between Ghana national & Indian wife within 6 months

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar passed the order on April 28 on a plea by the father, who was aggrieved with the Karnataka High Court's order rejecting his habeas corpus petition for custody of the six-year-old male child, currently living with the mother in Bengaluru.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has told a family court in Bengaluru to decide expeditiously, may be on an out of turn basis within six months, a dispute related to custody of a child born in 2019 to a Ghana national and his Indian wife, who got married in Dubai in 2018.

The top court also directed the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), Bengaluru not to take any coercive action and allow the child to continue in India till these proceedings are decided.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar passed the order on April 28 on a plea by the father, who was aggrieved with the Karnataka High Court's rejection of his habeas corpus petition for custody of the six-year-old male child, currently living with the mother in Bengaluru.

The controversy before the court pertained to the custody and visitation rights in respect of the male child born to the appellant husband and respondent wife. While the appellant is a citizen of Ghana, the wife an Indian citizen. They met in Dubai and got married on April 19, 2018 under the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969. The marriage was solemnised and registered at the Consulate General of India in Dubai. They were blessed with the child on January 24, 2019.

There arose multiple marital disputes which prompted the respondent-wife to take the child to Muscat, Oman on March 14, 2021, allegedly without informing the appellant. Thereafter, some cases between the parties were instituted before the courts of First Instance at Muscat and then in Dubai.

Finding that it may not be necessary to refer to those proceedings, the court noted respondent-wife came to India along with the child and settled at Bengaluru along with her parents. This led the appellant to initiate proceedings seeking a writ of habeas corpus before the High Court.

The High Court on December 10, 2024 declined any relief to the appellant-father primarily on the ground that a custody case of the child is already pending before the Additional Family Court at Bengaluru.

After hearing senior advocate Nikhil Goel for the appellant and advocate Raman Nanda for the respondent wife, and without expressing any opinion on merits of the case, the court granted liberty to the father of the child to immediately move an application before the family court for the grant of interim visitation rights.

The family court should pass an appropriate order, after hearing the parties and preferably after interacting with the child, within a period of two weeks, the bench said.

In the event of acceptance of the appellant’s prayer, the modalities of meeting between the appellant and his son, physically as well as online, will be resolved by the family court, the bench said.

Since the child is also a Ghana passport holder and is on temporary visa, the parties will cooperate and ensure that the child continues on valid visa till the custody proceedings are decided by the family court.

"Consequently, we direct the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), Bengaluru not to take any coercive action and allow the child to continue in India till these proceedings are decided," the court ordered, disposing of the plea.