Man seeks son's custody to 'guard him from corona', Bombay HC rejects plea

Rosy Sequeira | TNN | Updated: Apr 16, 2020, 09:50 IST

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MUMBAI: There is no reason to disbelieve that the "natural mother of a child" would not guard him from the coronavirus, observed the Bombay high court on Wednesday while declining to give a man custody of his underage son during the lockdown.
Justice Ravi Deshpande, through videoconference, heard a plea by the father (43) in a pending petition by the mother (35), who has custody of their 7-year-old son, challenging weekend access granted to him by the family court in December 2018. The estranged couple are based in south Mumbai.
The father told the judge that the boy stays with his mother and grandmother in a Girgaum chawl with a common-use toilet.
"There is one toilet for many residents. It is known that coronavirus infection is caught through surface contact. There is no sanitation. I am concerned about my son catching infection. His mother will not be able to take care of him and protect him," the man argued in person.
He also submitted that social distancing is not practised in chawls as neighbours visit one another all the time. "They go to each other's homes," he said, informing the court that he lives in a 1,500 sq ft flat with private toilets and urging that his son's custody be given to him during the lockdown. "At least till the lockdown gets over, I may be given custody," he said.
But Justice Ravi Deshpande was disinclined to grant him relief and questioned how he could say that the mother won't take care of her child.
The judge noted in his order that there was no urgency "in the matter involved and there is no reason to disbelieve that the natural mother of the child would not take care of the child properly".