Woman gets temporary custody of 18-month-old as ‘mother’s milk is important’

MUMBAI: Observing that a mother’s milk was most important for a child’s physical and mental development, a sessions court upheld a lower court’s order granting temporary custody of an 18-month-old boy to his mother.
The child’s parents are estranged, with the mother filing a domestic violence complaint against her husband of three years. Refusing to grant custody to the 37-year-old businessman father, the court said, “...it is seen that the child of the parties is one year and six months old and is absolutely in need of breastfeeding. Since last one year, the child has been in custody of the husband and is deprived of his mother’s milk, which is most important for his physical and mental development. Thus, the welfare of the child is to reside with the mother,” judge Shrikant Y Bhosale said.
The child’s mother, also 37, had submitted a domestic violence complaint before the magistrate’s court in 2022. It was submitted that the estranged couple had an arranged marriage in 2020. In November 2021, the woman gave birth to a son. The woman complained that she was harassed by her husband and his relatives. She said on March 8, 2022, she was driven out of the house. The woman then moved the domestic violence complaint before a magistrate’s court.
After that, there were talks between the parties and the woman returned to her matrimonial house. However, she was once again allegedly driven out. She moved the magistrate’s court for custody of the child, and it was granted. Aggrieved with the magistrate’s court’s March 31 order granting the mother custody of the child, the father moved the sessions court.
The husband told the sessions court that his wife had no financial stability and was looking for a job. “In such circumstances, it is not appropriate to hand over custody of the child to the wife,” his lawyer submitted. The lawyer also submitted that the wife left her matrimonial house when the child was eight months old, and since then the husband and his parents were taking care of the child.
But the wife submitted that there were five dogs in the husband’s house, and the situation was unhygienic for the child. She submitted that she was harassed and was subjected to domestic violence, and was compelled to leave the house.