GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Need for shared parenting
Context: In child custody matters, the access to courts are getting tougher with pandemic induced restrictions, impacting both non-custodial parents and children.
Seeking custody of a child in the event of a marriage breaking down is a messy affair.
While the concept of shared parenting is a reality in countries such as the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, it is not an option in India.
What does the law say?
Two laws determine the custody of children in India.
The first is The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act (HMGA) of 1956, which states that the natural guardian of a Hindu minor boy or unmarried girl shall be the father and mother, provided that custody of a minor who has not completed five years of age shall ordinarily be with the mother.
But the HMGA does not contain any independent, legal or procedural mechanism for deciding custody rights or declaring court-appointed guardians. Therefore, we fall back on the second law, which is colonial in nature.
The second law is the Guardian and Wards Act of 1890 (GWA) which deals with the appointment of a person as a ‘guardian’ to a child, both with respect to the child and property.
Child custody, guardianship and visitation issues between parents are determined under the GWA, if a natural parent wants to be declared as an exclusive guardian to his/her own child.
Upon disputes between parents in a petition under the GWA, read with the HMGA, guardianship and custody can be vested with one parent with visitation rights to the other parent.
In doing so, the welfare of the minor or “best interests of the child” shall be of paramount consideration.
What does “best interests of the child” mean?
India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
The definition of “best interests of the child” has been incorporated from the UNCRC in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
The “best interests of the child” means to ensure fulfillment of his/her basic rights and needs, identity, social well-being and physical, emotional and intellectual development”.
In 2019, the Supreme Court of India held in Lahari Sakhamuri v. Sobhan Kodali that the “best interests of the child” is wide in its connotation and “cannot remain the love and care of the primary care, i.e., the mother in case of an infant or the child who is only a few years old.” This is child-centric approach.
Again, in 2022, the Supreme Court in Vasudha Sethi v. Kiran V. Bhaskarheld that a child’s welfare, not the individual or personal legal right of the parents, is of paramount concern in a custody battle. Welfare of the child must get precedence over the parents’ rights.
Have any recommendations been made for joint parenting?
Recommendations have been made for joint parenting by various committees.
The Law Commission of India Report in 2015, on Reforms in Guardianship and Custody Laws in India, recommended joint custody and shared parenting. It disagreed with the idea of singular child custody with one parent.
Law Commission made exhaustive recommendations for amendments in the HMGA and GWA for joint custody and for guidelines for such custody, child support, and visitation arrangements.
A complete draft of The Protection of Children (Inter-Country Removal and Retention) Bill, defining wrongful removal and retention, with a complete mechanism for redress was given in a two-volume report to the Government of India by Justice Bindal Committee.
What has happened to these recommendations?
Unfortunately, these reports have been ignored and impasse over the issue has resulted in ugly custody disputes.
Against this backdrop, in 2017, inVivek Singh v. Romani Singh, Supreme Court highlighted the concept of Parental Alienation Syndrome, which refers to the unjustified disdain of a child towards his or her parents.
The judgment underlined its “psychological destructive effects”. Sadly, alienated children do not even want to speak to or see the parent whose custody they are not under.
The court held that “a child-centric human rights jurisprudence that time is founded on the principle that public good demands proper growth of the child, who are the future of the nation.”
Regrettably, a prolonged separation divides and splits families.
What is the way forward?
Despite the idea of joint parenting growing in India, the laws remain unchanged. Courts are bound to the HMGA/GWA and have no other option. As a result, it is children who suffer in silence.
During the pandemic, there have been many cases of custodial parents taking advantage of the laws and denying visitation rights to non-custodial parents.
Therefore, general guidelines or practice directions by the Supreme Court are the need of the hour.
Shared or joint parenting with equal rights is a viable, practical, balanced solution for the child’s optimal growth.
Family courts are equipped under the Family Courts Act of 1984 to devise their own procedure, independent of the technicalities of law. They can formulate out-of-box methods and insist that children be shared by the father and mother.
For a child to be caught in a conventional single parent custody trap is archaic and destructive to the child. It ruins the child’s life and also causes misery to the parent, especially to the one who does not have custody.
