GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court has set aside a Kerala High Court order granting interim custody of two minor children to their father, citing his inability to provide home-cooked meals and a supportive environment during their stay. This recent order reversed the high court’s ruling from December 11, 2024, which allowed shared custody of the children between the estranged couple every 15 days.
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According to a BarandBench report, the bench comprising Justices Sandeep Mehta, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol noted that the father’s continued reliance on restaurant or hotel food for his eight-year-old daughter during her stay posed a health concern. “Continued consumption of food procured from restaurants/hotels would pose a health hazard, even to a grown-up person, what to talk of a tender-aged child of eight years,” the court observed in its judgment authored by Justice Mehta.
The court also noted that the man, who works as a general manager at a construction company in Singapore, is unable to spend adequate time with his children due to professional commitments. In contrast, the mother, employed with an IT company in Thiruvananthapuram and working from home, lives with her parents and the children, providing a more emotionally stable environment.
The bench, however, allowed the father to maintain contact through 15-minute video calls every Tuesday and Thursday. He is also permitted to visit his eight-year-old daughter and two-year-old son on alternate weekend days and may spend four hours with his son on a weekday of his choice, in the presence of a court-approved child counsellor.
The couple, married in 2014, began living separately following disputes, despite efforts to reconcile after the birth of their second child. In June 2024, the mother had sought permanent custody after alleging the father posed a risk of forcibly taking the children.
The Supreme Court allowed the mother's appeal to stand and directed the family court to decide the custody issue on merits in an expedited manner.
