Aastha Thakur
Published on: 12 September, 2022 at 21:40 IST
The Uttarakhand High Court has reaffirmed that the District Court with jurisdiction in the location where the “minor habitually dwells” is where an application for guardianship of a child must be filed.
A division bench consisting of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice RC Khulbe made the following observation:
“Since the minor is studying at a school in Mohali, it is that place where he is ordinarily residing. It does not matter whether the minor is residing at the said place only for a few months before the filing of the petition.”
“What is relevant is the nature of residence, i.e., whether it is continuous and on a permanent basis, or it is only a casual visit. Since the minor child s studying at Mohali, it cannot be said that the child is making only a casual visit to Mohali.”
The appeals father’s petition under Section 25 of the Guardians and Wards Act of 1890 about custody of his young son Kunj Rajpur had been rejected by the Family Court. In view of the respondent-mother of the child’s uncontested claims that she had relocated to Mohali, where she was working via an online system, and that her little son had been accepted into a school there, the Family Court dismissed the aforementioned petition on the basis of jurisdiction.
The appellant claimed that the first respondent had left Kashipur for Mohali while the school there, where she was working as a teacher, was operating in the online format. Since then, the first respondent has gone back to Kashipur to continue working at her school.
In addition, the appellant does not dispute that the young kid resides in Mohali and attends a local school there.
Because the District Court/Family Court in Mohali would have jurisdiction in the case, the court stated that the Family Court had the right to hold that it lacked the authority to hear the petition submitted by the appellant under the Guardians and Wards Act.
The lawsuit was consequently dismissed.