‘Can’t charge father to see child’: Karnataka High Court rejects Rs 5,000 ‘fee’

The court noted that despite living only 1.75 km apart, the mother repeatedly failed to bring the child for scheduled visitation without prior intimation, showing reluctance to facilitate the father’s access.

Examining the father’s records, the court found repeated non-compliance with visitation orders by the mother and held that her conduct could be considered while deciding the pending custody petition.

Father challenged restricted child visitation

The case arose from a custody dispute between an estranged couple over their four-year-old son. The father filed a petition before the Family Court, Bengaluru, seeking permanent custody of the child.

During the pendency of the divorce case, he sought interim unsupervised custody for a few hours every weekend, stating that although the family court had granted him supervised visitation every Sunday, the mother often brought the child late, accompanied by her parents, and prevented him from interacting freely with the child, which he claimed was affecting the child’s mental well-being.

The mother opposed the request, contending that the child was uncomfortable spending long hours with the father, became restless and cried during visits, and that the father had been negligent in the child’s upbringing and was not paying maintenance. She, therefore, sought modification of the existing visitation arrangement.

The family court modified the visitation schedule by allowing the father to meet the child on the first and third Saturdays of every month in the family court’s visitation room under the mother’s supervision, permitted a birthday meeting, and directed the father to pay Rs 5,000 per visit towards the child’s conveyance and other expenses.

Aggrieved by these directions, particularly the denial of unsupervised visitation and the payment condition, the father approached the high court. Appearing for the father, advocate Rashmi George contended that the mother left the matrimonial home with their child on June 30, 2022, without any reason, compelling him to file a petition seeking permanent custody. 

No Rs 5,000 fee for visitation: Order

The court observed that the family court had already granted the father visitation rights and that its decision to permit visits on the first and third Saturdays of every month and on the child’s birthday was appropriate. Accordingly, it confirmed those directions.

The court noted that records produced by the father showed the mother had failed to bring the child for visitation on several occasions without prior intimation and appeared reluctant to facilitate meetings between the father and the child. It observed that she had sought modification of the visitation order within a short time and had not complied with the earlier directions on multiple dates.\

The court held that both sets of grandparents should not be present during visitation sessions to ensure that the father and child could spend quality time together without unnecessary interference.

On the issue of expenses, the court found that since the mother herself had requested shifting the visitation venue from the coffee shop to the family court’s visitation room, she could not claim Rs 5,000 per visitation as conveyance charges. It therefore set aside that direction.