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Smriti Madan Kansagra v. Perry Kansagra

Miscellaneous Application · 2020 INSC 687Decided 8 Dec 2020
Miscellaneous Application No. 2140 of 2020
Justice Uday Umesh Lalit · Justice Indu Malhotra · Justice Hemant Gupta

Background

In an earlier judgment dated 28.10.2020, the Supreme Court had awarded custody of the couple's son, Aditya, to his father, Perry Kansagra, who lives in Kenya, subject to conditions including obtaining a "mirror order" from a Kenyan court and giving the mother, Smriti, specified visitation and contact rights. The mother filed this application seeking to modify several of those conditions (e.g., more vacation time, more frequent calls, Kenya visits every two months), while a dispute also arose over whether the order obtained from the Nairobi High Court properly qualified as the required "mirror order."

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that the Kenyan High Court's registration of the Indian judgment was sufficient compliance with the "mirror order" direction, given that Kenyan law treats such registration as the functional equivalent. It rejected most of the mother's requested modifications (restoring full vacation custody, more frequent video calls, bi-monthly Kenya visits at the father's expense) as unnecessary re-litigation of points already decided or as against the child's welfare and settled routine. It did grant one additional concession, an extra week's visit to Kenya each year coinciding with the child's birthday, at the father's expense, and accepted the father's undertakings on sharing school and medical information with the mother. Both miscellaneous applications were accordingly disposed of, with the original custody directions otherwise left intact.

Lesson Learnt

In child-custody matters the Supreme Court exercises an ongoing supervisory (parens patriae) role even after the "final" judgment, but it will only fine-tune, not reopen, settled custody arrangements, and the child's welfare and stability take precedence over either parent's preferences.

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

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