The financial soundness of a man does not disentitle a woman, who has no source of income, from taking custody of their minor child, a Delhi court has said while handing over a three-year-old girl to her mother for the time being.
Metropolitan Magistrate Vandana Jain, while granting the girl's interim custody to her mother, said, "The only fact that the mother is not earning cannot be a ground to disentitle her to take the custody of the child", adding that if the father was earning well, he can always provide for her maintenance.
The court was hearing an application filed by the woman, seeking interim custody of her child, after separation from her husband in a domestic violence case.
"Since the child is less than five years of age, it is reported in numerous judgements of the higher courts, that paramount interest of the child is in custody of the mother," the magistrate said.
The woman, in her plea, said she left her matrimonial house, along with her daughter in December last year, after cruelties were meted out to her by her husband.
She further said that in January 2014, her husband forcibly took away their daughter, following which she filed a case against him in April for her daughter's custody.
In June, the court had handed over the child to the mother, but after a revision petition was filed by the father, the sessions court directed the magistrate to interview the child and re-decide the matter.
The magistrate, after interviewing the girl, decided the case in the mother's favour, noting that the minor said nothing against either of her parents.
