“God always has something for you”, begins a note handed over by a relieved 10-year-old boy to a Supreme Court Bench led by Justices Kurian Joseph and Mohan Shantanagoudar.
A smile flitted across Justice Kurian’s face as he received the note from the boy in open court.
The note was an expression of gratitude from the child to the court for finally ending a bitter divorce battle between his parents. The couple finally decided to end their differences on an amicable note and withdraw a total of 23 cases they had filed against each other after they separated in 2011.
Caught in between were the traumatised children, the boy and his sister — their love for their parents split.
The court reciprocated by scanning the boy’s note and making it part of their judgment. The Bench dissolved the marriage by recording a decree of “divorce by mutual consent”.
Justice Kurian reached out to the child by writing in his judgment that the note is “the rich encomium paid to the court”.
“The little one present in court is exuberantly happy and sought liberty to present a handmade card expressing his joy on the settlement of all the disputes and litigations between his mother and father,” Justice Kurian said.
The court tries to fathom the anguish the child must have felt over the years, and his joy that the acrimony between his parents is over. The court has made the child’s note a proof of how every court has “a duty to make an endeavour to assist and persuade the parties in arriving at a settlement in a speedy manner to prevent sporadic litigations”, Justice Kurian said.
