A division bench of the Allahabad high court has set aside a single-judge ruling that a father has the right to transfer custody of a minor child to “any person”.
Allowing an appeal filed by the child’s mother, a bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Kshitij Shailendra said, “The observation that the father has the right to transfer de facto custody of a minor child to any person is against all cannons of law and morality and the same therefore required to be set aside.”
The appeal challenged a single-judge order passed in a habeas corpus petition, which had dismissed the mother’s plea seeking custody of her two children.
In her petition, the mother alleged that her sons—Yuvaraj (6) and Ayushman (4)—were in the illegal custody of the husband’s sister and brother-in-law, and sought that custody be handed over to her.
The single judge, in the order dated April 3, had dismissed the petition, observing, “A father being the guardian of a minor has every right to transfer de facto the custody of his minor child to any person.”
The division bench, allowing the appeal, observed: “A perusal of the conclusion arrived at by the single judge wherein it has been held that a father being the guardian of a minor has every right to transfer de facto the custody of his minor child to ‘any person’, cannot be sustained under any circumstance.”
It also termed the observation that one parent cannot challenge the father’s right to custody as “wholly unsustainable.”
“Consequently, the appeal is allowed. The order dated April 3, 2026, is quashed and set aside,” the division bench ruled in its April 28 judgement.
www.hindustantimes.com
#Father #transfer #child #custody #person
