Man secures custody of child fraudulently, SC orders CBI to bring child from Kenya

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered CBI to register a criminal case against a Kenyan national who secured the custody of his 11-year-old son fraudulently by obtaining court orders in his favour last year.

The top court directed CBI to secure the child’s custody and entrust it to his mother.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit, Hemant Gupta, and Ajay Rastogi recalled the judgement passed in favour of Perry Kansagra, the father of the child, for having made false and fraudulent representations before it to secure child’s custody.

"It shall be the duty of this court to nullify, in every way, the effect and impact of the orders which were obtained by playing fraud upon the court,” the bench said.

The bench noted that there was concrete material and reason to believe that it was a well-planned conspiracy on part of Perry to persuade it to pass orders in his favour and allow him the custody of the child and then turn around and defy the orders passed by it.

“The Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi and the Indian Embassy in Kenya are directed to ensure that all possible assistance and logistical support is extended to the mother in securing the custody of the child," the bench said.

On October 30, 2020, the top court's three-judge by a majority view of 2:1 has directed the woman from Delhi to hand over custody of the male child to his father of Indian origin having dual citizenship of Kenya and the UK with the condition that he would obtain a 'mirror order' from Kenya, in order to safeguard her interests, including of regular meetings with the boy.

The 'mirror order' from the concerned court in Nairobi was to reflect the directions contained in the judgment by the apex court.

On May 21, this year, the top court was told that the Kenyan High Court refused to recognise the order passed by it, saying the judgment is from a superior court of a non-reciprocating country, and in connection with the guardianship of a child, was not registrable there.

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