Observing that paternal grandparents would always take “better care” of grandchildren, the Supreme Court on Thursday granted the custody of a six-year-old boy, orphaned in the deadly second wave of Covid last year, to his paternal grandparents instead of his maternal aunt. Court observed that the child’s inclination is towards paternal grandparents.
The boy lost his father and mother on May 13 and June 12, 2021, respectively to COVID-19, and later his custody was granted to his maternal aunt by the Gujarat High Court on various grounds including her age, unmarried status, Government job, and the joint family.
A bench of justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose set aside the Gujarat High Court verdict and allowed the appeal of the 71-year-old grandfather of the orphan boy saying that even the child was willing to be with the grandparents.
“In our society still the paternal grandparents would always take better care of their grandson. One should not doubt capacity and/or ability of the paternal grandparents to take care of their grandson.
It is said that the grandparents love the interest rather than principal. Emotionally also the grandparents will always take better care of their grandson. Grand Parents are more attached emotionally with grandchildren...,” Justice Shah, writing the judgment for the bench, said, observing the child’s inclination towards paternal grandparents.
The bench, however, said maternal aunt can have visitation rights and meet child once a month as per convenience. “We are of opinion that High Court has committed an error in not handing over and/or continuing custody of corpus —grandson to appellant — paternal grandparents and to give custody of corpus to ...Maternal aunt of corpus. We are of opinion that if balance is to be struck between paternal grandparents and maternal aunt..., the balance would certainly tilt in favour of paternal grandparents,” it said.
The Bench also expected to have video calling between boy and maternal aunt on a regular basis, it said, adding that verdict should not be misunderstood that maternal aunt may not take proper care of minor son of her deceased sister.