Madras High Court imposes Rs 2,000 fine on divorced woman for not letting estranged hubby meet child

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has imposed costs of Rs 2,000 on a divorced woman, who denied her former husband from spending two days time with their minor son, as agreed before the family court, earlier.

Matrimonial disputes between couples should not deny children the care and affection of both parents and any attempt to stop the child from meeting or spending time with the other spouse would only make the child a spoilt one, Justice S Vaidyanathan observed.

The judge was treating as closed a contempt application from a man, who sought the court’s intervention to meet his child and to punish his erstwhile wife for wilful disobedience of court order.

According to petitioner, he married the woman at Vedaranyam in January 2012 and a male child was born to them in December same year. Due to some misunderstanding, his wife left her marital home on March 28, 2015, leaving her child there.

Later, the couple got divorced. She filed a criminal case for custody of the child. Since a criminal complaint was registered against the petitioner, he moved the High Court and obtained advance bail in October 2015, subject to the condition that he should hand over the child to the woman. The court also allowed him to meet the child twice on weekends.

‘Don’t poison minds’

The judge said that even assuming that the mother had poisoned the child’s mind not to look at his father and even if she succeeds,  the child will become adamant at a later point of life causing more trouble