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Col. Ramneesh Pal Singh vs. Sugandhi Aggarwal

Not available · 2024 INSC 397Decided 8 May 2024
Not available
Justice Vikram Nath · Justice Satish Chandra Sharma

Background

The appellant, an Army Colonel, and the respondent, a schoolteacher, married in 2002 and had two children. After the appellant was posted to Jammu and Kashmir in 2013, the couple's relationship deteriorated and the children ended up in the appellant's custody. A Family Court in Delhi granted permanent custody of both minor children to the father with visitation rights to the mother, but a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court set this aside and ordered shared custody instead, partly relying on allegations of "parental alienation" against the father.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the record and found no real evidence that the father had engaged in "alienating behaviour": the children showed no clear preference between the parents, and the strain in the family was not shown to stem from any conduct designed to turn the children against their mother. The Court held that the High Court had proceeded on an unsubstantiated assumption of parental alienation without any court having actually recorded such conduct, and had wrongly relied on an earlier precedent (Vivek Singh) that did not fit these facts. It restored the Family Court's order, holding that custody should remain with the father, subject to the mother's visitation rights as already granted by the Family Court.

Lesson Learnt

A claim of "parental alienation" in a custody dispute must be backed by concrete evidence of alienating conduct. Courts cannot infer it merely from strained relations between estranged parents, and appellate courts should not disturb a well-reasoned custody order without such a solid factual basis.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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