The Federal Constitutional Court has clarified that a child cannot be taken back from the mother only because she has remarried.
The court made the remarks while hearing a case related to the custody of a nine-year-old child after the death of the father.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi heard the case. The court rejected the petition seeking the child’s handover to the grandmother or maternal aunt.
It ruled that handing over the child to the mother was in accordance with the law.
During the hearing, Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi asked why the uncle and aunt wanted the child to be handed over. He also questioned whether those seeking custody had asked how the child’s education was going.
The judge said a child could not be handed over to others only on the basis of the mother’s second marriage.
Property dispute also discussed
The petitioner’s lawyer argued that the mother had sold the child’s share inherited from the father. Justice Rizvi asked whether the petitioners also wanted to recover the child’s share from the father.
He observed that an FIR had also been filed against the mother and that hatred and resentment had been maintained.
The judge said the mother should have sold the share only after obtaining permission from the guardian court. However, he noted that the matter before the court was only related to the child’s handover.
“It seems that more importance is being given to the property than to the child,” the judge remarked.
Previous decisions upheld
The Federal Constitutional Court noted that all courts had upheld the decision to hand over the child to the mother. After the father’s death, custody of the nine-year-old child had been given to the mother.
The court dismissed the petition and maintained that the child’s handover to the mother was lawful.
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