The natural custody of minor children lies with their mother, especially when their education and emotional stability are at stake.

ORDER :

A.Y. KOGJE, J.

1. The petitioner before the Court is the mother of two children, namely Fulesh and Gil, aged 12 years and 8 years respectively. In an unfortunate turn of events where the husband of the petitioner died on 23.08.2024 while they were residing at Ahmedabad, independent of the family of deceased husband who belong to Village: Vanpur, Taluka: Bechraji, District: Mehsana, it appears that both the children were taken away in due course by respondent Nos.4 to 8 to their Village. It also appears that thereafter, when the family regained composure and the petitioner tried to bring her children back, the respondent Nos.4 to 8 refused to hand-over custody of the two children to the petitioner.

2. From the pleadings, it appears that both the children were at Ahmedabad with the parents and are currently studying in Shayona Vidhya Vihar, Ghatlodia, Ahmedabad.

3. Learned advocate Ms. Hetvi Sancheti has instructions to appear on behalf of respondent Nos.4 to 8 and has stated before the Court that the children are present before the Court on account of the advance intimation given by respondent No.3. Learned advocate has submitted that on account of the behavior of the petitioner, not befitting a mother, the two children were taken away by respondent Nos.4 to 8 and both the children have been admitted in a school temporarily. It is contended that the children are very happy in the company of respondent Nos.4 to 8. It is submitted that in fact, it is the petitioner, who had left the children alone in the custody of respondent Nos.4 to 8. Learned advocate also indicated that the Court may interview the children, as she has specifically questioned the children about they being happily residing with respondent Nos.4 to 8.

4. At the outset, the Court is not inclined to undertake the exercise of interviewing the children as firstly, they were in the custody of respondent Nos.4 to 8 for sufficient long period of time to be influenced and secondly, the Court is of the view that any further questioning or interviewing of the children would cause more stress and presently, the age of the children is not such where the Court would be inclined to cause any further stress to them.

5. Suffice it to say that the children being minor their natural custody would lie with their mother. The Court has ascertained from learned advocate for the petitioner about the financial means to sustain themselves, which consists of two rental premises from which they are receiving rent and the family support of her own brothers, who are residing at Ahmedabad and foremost, both the children are regular students of Shayona Vidhya Vihar, Ghatlodia, Ahmedabad, in the vicinity of which the petitioner is currently residing. Any disturbance in the residence of children would affect their on- going education, which would be more taxing than the loss of their father in the recent past. Further, both the corpus have been residing with the petitioner-mother since their birth.

6. In view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances, the Court is inclined to allow the petition. Accordingly, the petition is allowed. The corpus, namely Fulesh and Gil, aged 12 years and 8 years respectively, are ordered to be sent in the custody of the petitioner. The respondent Nos.4 to 8, being the family members of the father, would obviously be entitled to meet the children with prior intimation to the petitioner. The respondent Nos.4 to 8 are permitted to meet the children once in a month at Ahmedabad at the residence of the petitioner and the petitioner shall provide conducive atmosphere for such meeting.

7. Both the sides have raised concerns with regard to safe passage of the petitioner and the corpus. In that view of the matter, the Court directs the learned APP to facilitate the safe passage of the petitioner and the corpus to their destination.