By Diksha Mehta-
A two-Judge Bench comprising Justices Amjad Sayed and Abhay Abuja of the Bombay High Court refused to entertain the plea of a Thai National woman in a legal custody battle with her Indian-origin husband to relocate their son, aged 12 to Bangkok.
The woman, who had been separated from her husband since 2012 had moved a petition to the HC in June, 2020 to relocate their son to Bangkok amid the COVID-19 crisis until their custody petition in the family Court in Bandra is settled.
She submitted that they had become lonely amidst the crisis and wanted to move to her homeland since the Coronavirus had substantially come under control there.
However, the Bench was not satisfied with her contentions and observed that relocating the child would result in substantial education loss since he studied in a reputed school in Mumbai and was attending online classes regularly.
It was also pointed out that since he had lived in Mumbai all his life, it would lead to a serious disrupt in his life if he is shifted to another country suddenly.
Even the contention of the woman that she had been allowed to travel with her son to Thailand 9 times by other Courts did not satisfy the Court.