The Delhi High Court Monday refused to entertain a plea by a professor from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, seeking custody of his minor son, after his wife — a Chinese national — refused to return to India with the child.
The plea came up for hearing before a bench of Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Vinod Goel, who asked him to first pursue the legal remedies available to him in China.
“We have no jurisdiction over that country. Since the child is there, you need to move the court there for legal remedies under the law,” the bench told the man.
It observed, “Even if we issued notice to the woman (Chinese national), there will be havoc in that country…”
Sensing the mood of the court, the counsel for the professor withdrew the plea.
Central government standing counsel, Anurag Ahluwalia, appearing for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), told the court that the Indian government had taken up the matter with their counterparts in China, who responded that the husband should try and settle the dispute via negotiation or through legal channels.
The couple had gone to China in December 2015 — eight months after their son was born — for Christmas vacation.
While the professor came back to India in January 2016 as classes in the Indian Institute of Technology were about to resume, she had stayed back to attend the Chinese Lunar New Year festivities.
On February 14, 2016, when the wife was to supposed to board the flight to India, she sent him a message saying she would not return and their son would remain with her.
In his plea, the 37-year-old professor had claimed that there were no marital disputes and it was his wife’s family who were preventing her from returning to India or giving him the custody of their child.
He submitted that he had also alleged that when he visited his wife’s native place in Guizhou province of the People’s Republic of China in May this year, he found that she had moved from there.