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Sheetal Vasant Thakur v. Chirag Arora

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 638Decided 11 Jun 2026
C.A. No.-008457-008458 - 2026
Justice Sanjay Karol · Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh

Background

The appellant-mother and respondent-father married in 2015 and had a daughter in the USA in 2016. The mother alleged that the child was sexually abused by the father around 2018-2019 when she was about two years old, leading to proceedings in the US and eventually in India. The Bombay High Court had passed orders directing evaluation of the child by an "expert," later modified to a "panel of experts" (including some suggested by the father and located outside Jalgaon, even outside India), for the purpose of facilitating the father's reconnection with the child. The mother challenged these High Court orders before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that courts dealing with a child who is an alleged victim of sexual abuse must adopt a trauma-informed, child-centric approach, and cannot mechanically expand expert panels or expose the child to unfamiliar or externally-suggested evaluators without due regard to her psychological safety. The Court modified the High Court's orders, laying down detailed guidelines (drawing on the POCSO Act framework) covering confidentiality of the child's identity and records, restricted access to therapeutic material, avoiding unnecessary substitution of an already-trusted therapist, safeguards for virtual interactions with experts, continuing judicial supervision of the evaluation process, and periodic psychological assessment of both the child and the parents. The matter was remitted to the Family Court to pass further orders in line with these directions, and the connected writ petition was disposed of to that extent. The appeals were partly allowed with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

When courts order psychological evaluation of a child in cases involving alleged sexual abuse by a parent, the child's welfare, dignity and emotional safety must remain the paramount and controlling consideration: expert involvement, especially unfamiliar or externally-proposed evaluators, should not be imposed mechanically but tailored case-by-case with strict confidentiality safeguards.

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

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