NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court invariably supports a woman in matrimonial or child custody litigations by transferring cases nearer to her place of residence.
But on Monday it stayed the proceedings in a child custody case initiated by an estranged wife, after the husband alleged desertion following his having suffered a serious paralytic attack.
Married in Jodhpur in 1993, Dinesh and Manisha moved to Singapore in August 1993 and the couple enjoyed a carefree life. But things turned upside down for Dinesh who suffered a major paralytic stroke on October 4, 2002 in Singapore, that left his right side paralysed.
The couple returned to India in March 2004 and tried settling down at Jodhpur. But the husband through counsel Aishwarya Bhati alleged that his wife found it difficult to adjust to living with in-laws and helping out her husband, who needed constant help to do daily routine jobs. Dinesh alleged that his wife then left the matrimonial home.
The bone of contention now is his two sons aged 15 years and 11 years, both studying in boarding schools, as the wife moved the Chennai family court seeking custody of the two sons. Appearing for the husband, senior advocate Jagdish Dhankar told a bench comprising CJI K G Balakrishnan and Justice Aftab Alam that the husband was not in a state to travel to Chennai. He pleaded that it would be appropriate to transfer the case to Jodhpur. The bench issued notice to the wife and stayed the proceedings
