The Allahabad High Court ruled that the fact that a woman entered into a new relationship without a divorce would not deprive her of custody of her minor child.

Judge JJ Munir dismissed a petition filed by a Ram Kumar Gupta on behalf of his son, Anmol Shivhare, noting, “The fact that the mother left her husband’s home without divorce and a new one Having a relationship with another person who they supposedly believe to be a second marriage may be something the law and society disapprove of, but in itself something that is not so depraved or immoral that the Mother is deprived of her special place in the minor’s life. “

The court also found that “the minor’s withdrawal from his mother’s company could have negative effects on his overall development”.

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The petitioner Gupta said that Sanyogita’s marriage to another person was void as it was a second marriage during her husband’s lifetime and she lost her right to Anmol’s custody. In addition, Sanyogita’s custody of the minor in a stranger’s home has been labeled illegal. According to him, the minor’s life is at risk in the stranger’s house. The minor has a bleak future, he said.

It is the minor’s well-being that he be placed in the care of his father, who is his natural guardian, before the mother who has left her legally married husband without divorce and remains a stranger in a living relationship with him, the petition said .

During the trial, Mother Sanyogita stated that Gupta is an unkind father. She also said that he had treated her with cruelty and that was why she attacked him.

In this context, the court stated that the court’s concern was to determine whether the minor was safe and his well-being in his mother’s new home was guaranteed.

After interacting with Sanyogita and her underage son, the court said, “The way the minor’s mother described her circumstances in a new home is of the opinion that the minor is currently well integrated into his mother’s new family . “

“As regards the dominant and essential part of the minor’s custody and care, this court is of the opinion that these are better secured in the hands of the mother compared to the father,” the court noted.

However, the court ensured the father’s visitation rights and stated that the minor’s rights to his father’s company must be guaranteed at all costs. The court ordered that Ms. Sanyogita would be required to take the minor to his father’s house in Kanpur every Sunday of the month.