Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 7 (IANS) After a 12-year-old girl told the court she wanted to live with her father, the Delhi High Court transferred her custody while the mother has been granted visitation rights.

The judge took the girl, a student of Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, aside in her chamber and spoke to her before passing the order. The mother, who runs a number of a real estate businesses, had appealed against a trial court order, which had ruled in favour of the father.

“The child is mature and fairly intelligent; her thoughts are coherent and consistent,” said Justice Indermeet Kaur in an order delivered last week and made available to IANS Monday.

“The custody of the child aged 12 years has been transferred from the mother to the father, the mother has been granted visitation rights,” the court said.

The parents of the girl are neighbours in New Friends Colony.

The couple got married in 1997, but due to some personal problem the woman left her matrimonial home in 2004 along with her daughter.

“In 2005, the man filed a divorce petition, which is pending before the court till date. However, he sought custody of his child, which was allowed by the trial court,” said Raj Shekhar Rao, counsel for the girl`s father.

“The girl’s mother came in appeal against the trial court’s September order, giving custody to the father,” said Rao. The father runs a software business.

Thereafter, the mother approached the high court filing an application under the Guardians and Wards Act, seeking her daughter’s custody, he said. The girl was staying with her mother since 2004, but got to meet her father.

“The girl expressed her desire to remain in permanent custody with her father with permission to visit her mother as and when she desires,” the court observed, to which the parents agreed, keeping in view the desire of the child.

“For a period of the first three weeks of the month, the child shall remain in the custody of the father, thereafter, in the last week of every month the child will shift to the residence of the mother. This arrangement shall be adhered to and will continue till further orders,” said the court.

Justice Kaur said that both parties were open to this arrangement and there was no dispute to the fact that the child was free and open to interact with either of the parents as and when she desired, “but the custody arrangement, as noted herein, shall continue till either of the parties wants the order to be varied because of change of circumstances”.

The child told the court she wants to share her vacations equally with her parents. In accordance, the high court ruled: “The next vacation which is to fall due is scheduled in the month of January 2012. It will probably be a 10-day break, the next ensuing vacation would be a session break in March, then again the summer break probably for about two months. As per the desire of the child, as on date, she desires to share her vacation half and half between both the parents.”