The best interest of the children and compliance with court orders are paramount in custody disputes.

R. BANUMATHI,J

1. Being aggrieved by the modification of the earlier order dated 22.12.2010 in respect of visitation rights allowed to the Respondent-father, Appellant-mother of the children has come forward with this appeal.

2. Respondent filed Petition in O.P.No.144 of 2008 to appoint him as guardian of their minor children Anamika (Date of Birth 25.02.1999) and Riyaan (Date of Birth 17.12.2003). In the Petition, number of interim orders came to be passed which may not be of much relevance for the limited scope of the question involved in this appeal. Suffice it to note that in the earlier order in O.S.A.No.268 of 2008 dated 07.8.2008, the Division Bench ordered that the main O.P. itself be disposed of within a period of three months from the date of the order and directed the parties to co-operate for early disposal of the matter.

3. When the children were located in Hyderabad, on application filed by the Respondent-father, by an order dated 11.03.2010, Justice V.Ramasubramanian, J interalia passed the order permitting the Respondent-father to take interim custody on the evening of Friday preceding the second Saturday of a month and bring them to Chennai and hand over the custody of the children on the following Sunday before 8.00 p.m. at Hyderabad.

4. Thereafter trial commenced on 05.02.2010. Proof affidavit of PW1 filed and 38 documents were marked on her side. Then the case was adjourned to 12.02.2010 for PW1's cross examination. In the mean while, Appellant-mother and the minor children were re-located in Pondicherry. Respondent-father filed various applications. By the order dated 22.10.2010, Justice V.Ramasubramanian,J passed an order to the effect that in addition to the second weekend, Respondent-father should have similar custody of the children on the fourth weekend of every month also and the relevant portion of the said order dated 22.12.2010 reads as under:-

"(c) The petitioner-father shall take the children on the evening of the Friday preceding the Second Saturday of a month and after having company of the children on Saturday and Sunday, hand over the children at the residence of the respondent-mother before 6.00 P.M., on the following Sunday. The same arrangement shall also happen on the Friday preceding the fourth Saturday of the month so that the petitioner has interim custody for the second weekend and the fourth weekend of every month."

5. Even though trial commenced in February 2010, there was not much progress in the trial. Even when the trial is pending, Respondent-father again filed other set of applications to modify the order dated 11.03.2010 and also the order dated 22.10.2010 and the applications were disposed of by the impugned order dated 24.6.2011 giving Respondent-father custody of children on every alternative weekends and other alternative weekends to have visitation rights. The impugned order reads as under:-

"(a) the father shall take custody of children on every alternative Saturday morning and bring them to Chennai and drop them back on the evening of the next day, viz., the following Sunday. On the other alternative weekend, the father shall have the company of the children in Pondicherry itself; and

(b) all the vacations, such as Dasara, Christmas and Summer, whenever children have all these vacations, shall be shared equally between both the parties."

The effect of the above order is that Respondent-father shall have custody/visitation rights on all weekends. Being aggrieved by the grant of visitation rights to Respondent-father on all weekends, Appellant-mother has come forward with this appeal.

6. When the matter was taken up on 22.07.2011, parties were present. We have also enquired the children in the Chamber. We have noticed that daughter-Anamika, aged 12 years is not willing to go with the Respondent-father even for one day. We have also enquired the boy-Riyaan, aged 7 years. Boy-Riyaan has not expressed anything and remained quiet. In the above said circumstances, we felt