The Bombay High Court has ruled that a child's welfare covers both their physical and mental well-being, health, comfort, and general social and moral development, affirming a family court's order handing over the interim custody of a girl to her mother.
Welfare of a child is of paramount consideration in deciding the custody matters and child's comfort is one of the factors that is to be taken into account, it said.
A single bench of Justice Sharmila Deshumkh in the order of July 21 dismissed a petition filed by the woman's husband challenging a February 2023 order passed by the Bandra family court directing him to hand over the custody of the eight-year-old daughter to the estranged wife.
The word welfare is to be understood in the widest sense taking within its fold the physical and mental well-being, health, comfort and overall social and moral development of the child. All that is essential for a well-balanced upbringing of the child amounts to welfare of the child, the order said.
While refusing to quash the family court order, the court noted that the comfort of the child is one of the factors to be taken into consideration while considering the welfare of the child. The bench added that the girl was eight years old and would be undergoing hormonal changes and also physical changes.
Much care has to be taken during this phase of growth of the girl child and the paternal grandmother or the paternal aunt cannot be a substitute to the mother who is also a qualified doctor, it said.
During this phase of life, the girl child requires care and attention of a woman who would be better equipped to understand the process of transformation which the girl child will undergo and as such, the mother at this stage is preferred against the father, the high court said.