Don't Involve Police Stations In Children's Custody Arrangements: Kerala High Court Tells Family Courts
The Kerala High Court directed Family Courts to not involve police stations in custody arrangement of children. The Bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran and Justice M. B. Snehalatha made this order after noticing order of a family Court directing the parents to exchange the child at police custody as the interim custody arrangement.The same Bench had earlier ordered that children involved...
The Kerala High Court directed Family Courts to not involve police stations in custody arrangement of children. The Bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran and Justice M. B. Snehalatha made this order after noticing order of a family Court directing the parents to exchange the child at police custody as the interim custody arrangement.
The same Bench had earlier ordered that children involved in custody battles should be called to court only in unavoidable circumstances. The Court in that judgment had noted that being called to court was causing trauma to children. The Court had also directed that the exchange of the child should be done at a neutral place and not in court premises, as far as premises.
In the instant case, the Court noted that the child was subjected to a worse condition than being forced to court premises.
“..when the learned Family Court made an arrangement regarding the interim custody of the child involved, the exchange was directed to be done at a police station. In our view, this is worse than the child being forced to court premises and spaces and are sure that it requires no further expatiation or restatement.”
Counsel for the Appellant: Advocates Dr. V. N. Sankarjee, V. N. Madhusudanan, R. Udaya Jyothi, Keerthi B. Chandran, Vijayan Pillai P., K., Shilpa P. S., Unnikrishnan H., Aswin P. S., Shriya Merlin Maxwell
Counsel for the Respondents: Adv. C. M. Charisma
Case No: Mat. Appeal 398 of 2025
Case Title: X v Y
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 286