Supreme Court approves return of child to father in Canada after six years
In October 2019, the wife left Canada with their three-year-old son and returned to India without the father’s knowledge
Canada's Supreme Court has allowed a minor child to return to his father after a six-year separation, upholding a July 3 order from the Delhi high court. The court dismissed the mother's appeal against the high court's directive for the child to be returned to Canada within six weeks and for temporary custody to be handed over to the father.
In 2015, the couple married and lived in California initially, moving to Mississauga, Canada, in 2018. However, disputes arose between them, leading to the mother taking their three-year-old son to India without informing the father in October 2019. In March 2020, a Canadian court ordered the child's return to Canada, granting the father temporary sole custody and prohibiting the mother from removing the child without his consent or court permission.
The father then filed a habeas corpus petition in the Delhi high court, alleging the child had been unlawfully retained by his wife in India despite the Canadian court's direction. The mother argued that her husband was seeking foreign custody enforcement, claiming the child had lived in India for six years before the petition was filed, potentially disrupting his settled environment.
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, ruling that allowing such conduct would undermine international child custody adjudications and enable litigants to evade unfavorable judicial orders by creating fait accompli situations across borders.
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