Child restored to parents from grandparents

CHENNAI, MARCH 25: Grandparents have not even an iota of right in comparison to that of the parents over the custody of a child, the Madra...

CHENNAI, MARCH 25: Grandparents have not even an iota of right in comparison to that of the parents over the custody of a child, the Madras High Court has observed.

A division bench comprising Justices V S Sirpurkar and D Murugesan made the observation while passing orders on a habeas corpus writ petition from the parents seeking to produce in the court their five-year-old-son from the clutches of the grandparents and to handover custody of the boy to them.

Following strain in the relationship, Thirunavukkarsu and his wife Kalaiselvi got themselves separated after the birth of the boy Karthik Rajan. After living with her parents for about five years, Kalaiselvi joined her husband. The son was, however, left in the custody of her parents. After six months, when the couple wanted their son back, the grandparents refused to oblige. Hence, the present petition.

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The grandparents submitted that the child was extremely attached to them and if he was separated forcibly, the child would suffer both mentally and physically.

Rejecting the contention, the bench observed that the mother stayed away from the child only for the last six months and in that short period, a five-year-old child could not easily forget his mother. There could be no doubt that the parents have a natural and first right over their child.