‘Not a chattel or ball’: Tripura High Court slams CMC Vellore’s ‘high-handedness’ in 4-year battle to reunite mother, daughter

Highlighting that the child is not a chattel or a ball that is bounced to and fro, the order added that it is only the child’s welfare that is the focal point for consideration.

Acknowledging that due to mental harassment, the father of the minor had passed away, and the mother suffered serious mental agony, the court said, “The minor daughter is the last hope of the petitioner to keep her breathing.”

Mother’s habeas corpus plea

• The case, filed as a habeas corpus plea in 2022, involves a child who was four years old at the time of filing the petition.
• The child had been taken to Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, for the treatment of colostomy disease.
• However, the hospital authorities alleged that the child showed signs of battered baby syndrome and sexual abuse, and filed a complaint against the petitioner-mother and her husband under Section-4 (punishment for penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, subsequently handing her over to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), which eventually placed her in children’s hospice at the Hope House.
• The petitioner alleged that these were false pleas intended to cover up medical negligence by probationary doctors at the hospital, and they treated her minor daughter in the wrong manner.
• The mother claimed that she was not allowed to meet her minor daughter in the hospital, nor was she allowed to breastfeed her.
• The woman further claimed that due to the mental harassment, the child’s father had passed away, and she herself had suffered serious mental agony.
• In 2022, the mother filed the habeas corpus plea in the high court.
• The court ordered a team from Tripura to visit Vellore to inquire about the child’s health and treatment.
• In 2023, the court directed that the child be produced in Agartala by May 15, 2023, for medical examination.
• In between, a visiting team submitted a report to the court detailing non-cooperation from the authorities in Vellore.
• Following this, the court conducted a virtual interaction with the girl, finding her to be “cheerful,” “mentally and physically alert,” and aware of the state of Tripura.

‘Humane problem requires human solution’

• The Tripura High Court observed that the mother and child’s love and affection are more relevant than anything else.
• It also noted the arbitrary nature and high-handedness of Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, and the Hope House in separating both mother and child all these years.
• A team of four officials had gone to Tamil Nadu to make all efforts to bring the minor, but the authorities there did not cooperate with them.
• In deciding a difficult and complex question as to the custody of a minor, a court of law should keep in mind relevant statutes and the rights flowing therefrom. But such cases cannot be decided solely by interpreting legal provisions.
• It is a humane problem and is required to be solved with human touch.
• In selecting a proper guardian for the minor, the paramount consideration should be the welfare and well-being of the child.
• In selecting a guardian, the court is exercising parens patriae jurisdiction and is expected, nay bound, to give due weight to a child’s ordinary comfort, contentment, health, education, intellectual development, and favourable surroundings.
• Parens patriae jurisdiction refers to the state’s inherent power to step in as guardian for those unable to care for themselves, like minors.
• But over and above physical comforts, moral and ethical values cannot be ignored, the court stated.
• They are equally, or we may say, even more important, essential, and indispensable considerations.
• If the minor is old enough to form an intelligent preference or judgment, the court must consider such a preference as well, though the final decision should rest with the court as to what is conducive to the welfare of the minor.
• Parliament rightly thinks that the custody of a child less than five years of age should ordinarily be with the mother and this expectation can be deviated from only for strong reasons.
• The entitlement of the mother to the custody of the child is not disputed, and the child, being a minor, cannot express its intelligent preferences.