New Delhi: A bitter international custody battle over a three-year-old boy has taken an unusual turn, with the Supreme Court directing the CBI to help trace the child.
The child’s Indian mother died months after his birth, but his maternal aunt and grandmother have been locked in a custody fight with the Egyptian father, alleging that he “secreted away” the boy.
The Supreme Court Wednesday ordered the CBI to issue appropriate notices to locate the child as well as the father, who is said to have “fled” to Egypt with his son. The bench, led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, has said that the CBI may coordinate with the international police organisation Interpol to execute its direction.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhatti, appearing for the CBI, said that a blue notice for the father and a yellow one for the child could be issued to “ascertain their location”.
A blue notice is issued to “collect additional information about a person’s identity, location, or activities in relation to crime” while a yellow notice is to “help locate missing persons, often minors”.
Bhatti also told the bench that once the father and son were located, a “diplomatic channel” could be explored to bring back the child to India.
On the court’s query about a red-corner notice, Bhatti said it would not be possible since such a look-out order is issued only when someone has either been sentenced to a minimum jail term of six months or is facing charges for an offence in which the punishment is more than two years. In the present case, Bhatti said, none of these two requirements was met.
The SC was petitioned by the child’s maternal aunt and grandmother on 29 February 2020, against a January 2020 verdict of the Bombay High Court that gave his custody to the father. They alleged that the child was mistreated by his father and that he tried to assault the boy’s aunt.
The need to involve the CBI arose when the father and his lawyer failed to respond to the SC’s notices for him to appear in court, and to the bailable warrants that were issued against him in the last two years.
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Tragic death, followed by court battle
According to court documents, the Egyptian national, a Muslim, was working at a multinational company in Pune, India, when he met his would-be wife, a Hindu woman, in 2007. She, too, worked in the same firm. The two had a long courtship, conducted long-distance on occasion, until they got married at the Egyptian embassy in Myanmar in 2014.
The petition states that the child was born in February 2019 in Pune and is, therefore, an Indian Muslim.
Within two months of giving birth, the mother died due to intracranial haemorrhage in Pune. For a couple of months, the child stayed in Pune with the aunt and grandmother and was subsequently taken to Cairo by the father. The aunt too accompanied them.
However, the child’s aunt alleged that the father tried to assault her and did not treat the child appropriately. So, after she and the child returned to Pune in September 2019 for visa renewal, she decided not to go back to Cairo with him.
Thereafter, the father moved the Bombay High Court, accusing the boy’s aunt and grandmother of keeping the child in illegal confinement seeking restoration of his child’s custody.
In December 2019, the HC gave the father interim custody, which was made absolute in January 2020. In the final judgment, the HC made it mandatory for the father to bring the child back to India four times a year and spend 15 days on each visit.
However, even though the father was directed by the HC to remain in Pune until 27 March 2020, he left with the child on 16 February 2020.
Supreme Court petition and need for CBI involvement
The child’s maternal aunt and grandmother petitioned the Supreme Court on 29 February 2020 against the Bombay HC order. In their petition, they made serious allegations about the father’s behaviour and his treatment of the child, including that he had “unnatural tendencies”.
The top court issued a notice on 18 March 2020 to the father to respond to the petition, but he failed to do so. A year later, on 5 March 2021, the court ordered the issuance of a bailable warrant, requiring his presence in the court on 5 April 2021. The warrant was to be served through the Indian embassy at Cairo as well as Abu Dhabi, where the father was then working.
In July 2021, the father’s lawyer sought to be discharged from the case as the Egyptian national had stopped communicating with him.
The court was informed in August 2021 that the Indian embassy in Cairo had been contacted to ensure the warrant was served on the father, and six weeks’ time was sought by the central government to get it executed.
In February 2022, the court issued a fresh bailable warrant after it was informed that the earlier ones had expired and, therefore, could not be served on the father.
Taking note of the father’s continuous absence, the top court decided to include the CBI as a party and issued directions to secure his presence.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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