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Nine-year child custody battle pits Kenyan against Indian court
- Kenyan court restrained the Indian woman from taking her son, who is subject of the case, outside the country.
- The man alleges contravention of rights and fundamental freedoms as stipulated in the Bill of Rights.
A Kenyan businessman has moved to court to stop his estranged wife from relocating their son to India in a child custody battle that has now lasted nine years.
The High Court’s Constitution and Human Rights Division granted an order restraining the woman from taking the minor outside its jurisdiction.
The order by Justice A.C Mrima also applies to the woman’s servants and agents and stops them from taking the boy outside the country without express consent from the minor and the petitioner.
Mrima issued the order on August 30 and it was to be served to the two respondents (the woman and the Attorney General of Kenya) within seven days.
The man alleges contravention of rights and fundamental freedoms as stipulated in the Bill of Rights under Article 28 and 53 (1) and ( 2) of the Constitution of Kenya and sections of the Children Act.
The petitioner and the minor are Kenyan citizens and live in Nairobi where the boy attends school while the 1st respondent (the woman) is a citizen of India, currently residing in New Delhi.
According Bowry and Company Advocates, for the petitioner, the minor had been living with his parents in Kenya until March 10, 2012 when the woman visited India with the boy under the pretext of going to visit the grandmother.
Papers filed in court by the petitioner say the woman, on arriving in India, filed a suit in the High Court at New Delhi seeking a permanent injunction restraining the father from moving the minor from New Delhi or accessing him in school.
“It was only after tedious and prolonged litigation, which included the court having various personal interactions with the minor at various stages of the proceedings, that the Supreme Court of India in Supreme Court Civil Appeal No. 3559 of 2020 came to the conclusive finding that the best interest and welfare of the child was best served and secured by granting the petitioner permanent custody of the minor with the respondent being granted visitation rights during school vacations in summer and winters, each year,” court papers said.
The papers also reveal that the minor was mistreated by the mother while in India