SC reserves verdict on custody of divorced couple's son

New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on wednesday reserved its verdict in a matter, related to the custody of a divorced couple's 11-year-old son, which had earlier prompted it to observe that "the Hindu Marriages Act has broken more homes than uniting." A vacation bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and G S Singhvi, reserved its order after hearing over an hour long submissions of the boy's divorced mother Sumedha Nagpal, who appeared in person. The case has assumed significance as the Supreme Court on Tuesday while dealing with the issue observed that "the Hindu Marriages Act has broken more homes than uniting" the families in the country. Sumedha, a teacher in a private school, argued before the bench that she cannot be denied the custody of the boy merely because her estranged husband was wealthy. "There is no law in this country which says that a woman living in a two bedroom DDA flat does not have the wherewithal or cannot take care of her child," she argued before the bench. The aggrieved woman's poser was in response to the plea taken by her husband on Tuesday before the court that he had got his son admitted in a reputed corporate school which was centrally air conditioned. The husband's claim was that he was financially well off than his divorced wife working as a school teacher. In her arguments, Sumedha also asserted that Section 19 of the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Ac,t which provides for guardianship to the father, does not apply to her. "As a woman I am the natural guardian of the child who was snatched from my lap when he was hardly two years old," she told the bench.

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