The petitioner being the father of respondent No.5 (corpus)

and husband of respondent No.4 has approached this Court by way

of the present petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India

seeking writ in the nature of Habeas Corpus for the custody of

respondent No.5 from respondent No.4. The petitioner has filed the

present petition through his father by giving the Power of Attorney.

At the time of filing the present petition, the petitioner was in

Toronto( Canada).

Facts of the case

1.

According to the petitioner, he is a permanent resident of

Canada. He was married to respondent No.4 on 18.1.2014 in

Lonavala following Hindu customs and rituals. After the marriage,

the petitioner and respondent No.4 were shifted to Chicago (USA).

Respondent No.4 gave birth to respondent No.5 on 29.8.2016 in

Chicago, hence she is a citizen of the USA by birth. According to

the petitioner, his parents as well as his in-laws used to visit

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Chicago and stay with them. Respondent No.4 with an intention to

settle in the USA took admission to Masters in Architecture and for

which the entire expenses were borne by the petitioner and his

relatives. In the year 2019, the petitioner was accepted by the

College in Canada for the Degree of MBA and he was given the

approval of permanent residency in Canada on 7.6.2018.

Respondent No.4 decided to stay in Chicago to complete her

Master's course in Architecture and the petitioner alone moved to

Toronto to pursue the studies of MBA.

2.

The petitioner, respondent No.4 and respondent No.5 came to

India in month of December 2019 during Christmas break to attend

the marriage in the family. Thereafter, they all returned to Canada

and Chicago respectively to pursue their studies. They again

travelled to India in the month of June, 2020.

3.

According to the petitioner, in April 2021, the parents of

respondent No.4 came to Canada and stayed with them up to

September 2021. They started disturbing his family life and due to

this respondent No.4 started fighting with him. In the month of

December 2021, respondent No.4 argued with the petitioner and

after which she left the house along with respondent No.5 with all

important documents like her passport, etc. to live in the house of

her cousin's brother in Canada. However, after two days, she called

the petitioner to take her back to the house in Chicago. After

returning home, respondent No.4 insisted the petitioner to sign a

written permission allowing her to take respondent No.5 to India.

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The parents of respondent No.4 also requested the petitioner to send

respondents No.4 and 5 to India. On their request, the petitioner

agreed to send them to India for a short visit with the hope of their

return by April, 2022. According to the petitioner, he was not

permitted to contact his daughter so he came to India and tried to

solve the dispute amicably with the help of common friends. Even

in India, he was not permitted to meet his daughter. Somehow, on

2.4.2022 respondent No.4 allowed the petitioner to meet with his

daughter and during a short meeting, she disclosed her willingness

to stay with him. The petitioner had a return ticket to Canada on

6.4.2022 and on his boarding respondent No.4 disclosed her

intention of cancelling her tickets of 10.4.2022 for Canada and

decided to stay in India with respondent No.5. The petitioner was

informed that respondent No.5 has been given admission in a

School at Indore. According to the petitioner, respondent No.5

deserves better education and a standard of life that she can get only

in the USA or in Canada. Thereafter, various emails were

exchanged between the petitioner and respondent No.4 to resolve

the dispute.

4.

Respondent No.4 sent a divorce notice to the petitioner on

28.4.2022 through her lawyer. The petitioner replied to it denying

the divorce. Since respondent No.4 has made up her mind to stay in

India with respondent No.5 depriving the petitioner to stay with his

wife and daughter,