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Gautam Kumar Das vs NCT of Delhi

Not available · 2024 INSC 610Decided 20 Aug 2024
Not available
Justice B.R. Gavai · Justice K.V. Viswanathan

Background

The appellant's wife died of COVID-19 in April 2021, just ten days after their daughter was born; he lost his father to COVID-19 shortly after. Overwhelmed by grief, he temporarily handed his infant daughter's care to his sister-in-law while he continued raising his older son. When he later remarried and sought his daughter back, his sister-in-law and her sister refused to return the child and moved her to West Bengal. He approached the Delhi High Court seeking custody, but the High Court merely granted liberty to approach the family court instead of deciding the matter itself.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the appellant, as the child's only surviving natural parent, had a legal right to her custody, relying on its earlier ruling in Tejaswini Gaud v. Shekhar Jagdish Prasad Tewari. It found that temporary care by relatives during a family crisis does not extinguish a natural guardian's rights, and that allegations against the father appeared to be an afterthought raised only once he began asserting his claim. The Court set aside the High Court's order, directed immediate handover of the child to her father, while allowing the relatives supervised visitation every Wednesday.

Lesson Learnt

A biological parent does not lose the right to custody of a child merely because relatives cared for the child during a period of family tragedy; the child's welfare and the natural guardian's rights remain paramount once that period has passed.

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

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