HC sets aside family court order junking wife’s plea over son’s meet with father

Bhopal/Jabalpur: The MP high court set aside the order of a family court rejecting a mother's plea seeking a direction to her estranged husband to meet their son. The HC directed the family court to dispose of a fresh plea filed by the mother, who has been living separately along with her three-year-old son. In the fresh plea, the mother argued that her son insists on visitations from his father and it was imperative for his psychological well-being that her estranged husband meet him. However, her husband opposed the plea claiming it was a ploy to harass him. He alleged further that his estranged wife had earlier told their son that his father had expired and resisted his attempts to meet him.The wife lives in Bhopal along with the three-year-old, while her estranged partner resides in Jabalpur. The family court had dismissed her plea saying it couldn't force a person to meet anyone. Significantly, their lawsuit seeking divorce is currently pending arbitration in the family court. The family court junked her plea while holding a hearing on the divorce suit earlier.Hearing the woman's plea challenging the order, the HC single bench of Justice Vivek Jain said, "Though the purpose and intent of the application was contested by the husband on the ground that it is filed with malicious intention…. the family court has simply scuttled the plea in only half a sentence mentioning it couldn't force anyone to meet anyone, and therefore, the application was rejected." "Cases of divorce always bring about psychological hardships to the parties and more than the parties, it is the children who suffer from such psychological strain and hardships. The petitioner/wife had contended in the application that the child is pressing hard to meet his father and if that was the situation, then the family court could have carried out some summary scrutiny of the application to come to a conclusion that whether the child indeed wants to meet the child and if that was the situation, then either the court could have counselled the parties to bring about meeting of the child with the father, or the assistance of a trained mediator could have been sought in the matter. Scuttling the application by simply writing that the court cannot force anyone to meet anyone, cannot be given a stamp of approval by this court," the HC said.