Bombay HC Junks Family Court Order Granting Child Custody to Father in Singapore

The Bombay High Court has set aside a family court order directing a mother to hand over interim custody of her 10-year-old son to his father in Singapore, holding that there was no independent assessment of the minor's welfare.

A division bench comprising Justices Bharati Dangre and Ashish Chavan in Mumbai passed the order on Tuesday after hearing an appeal filed by the mother against the lower court's decision.

“It is rather perturbing that the judge proceeded to sermonise and set out the so-called duties of a pious wife towards her husband as a basis to observe that it would be in the best interest of the child to be with his father,” the bench observed while quashing the directive.

According to the case records, the child was born in March 2016, and the family relocated to Singapore around July 2022. Following matrimonial disputes, the mother returned to India with the boy in March 2025.

The father subsequently moved an application before the family court seeking interim custody and permission to relocate the child back to Singapore. In May 2025, the family court established a schedule for the father's visitation and access to the son.

Following an appeal by the father, the High Court on February 13 remanded the dispute back to the family court to decide the issue of interim custody. On May 16, the family court ordered that the boy's custody be handed over to the father, prompting the mother to challenge the directive before the High Court.

Advocate Akshay Petkar, representing the mother, argued before the bench that the family court had granted irreversible custody to the father even before the conclusion of the trial. The judges noted that while remanding the matter earlier, the High Court had already observed that the lower court had placed undue emphasis on the couple's troubled relationship instead of focusing on the child's welfare.