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NEW DELHI: Orders passed by foreign courts on matrimonial disputes involving Indian origin couples should be respected by Indian courts, the Supreme Court has said in a ruling which has implication for cases where relief is sought in India after one of the parties flies back to the country.

While adjudicating on a child custody battle of a couple of Indian origin holding UK citizenship, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit directed that the case be decided by the High Court of Justice in UK.

It directed the mother, who had flown back to India with two minor daughters, to take the children to UK and subject herself to the jurisdiction of the court there.

“Merely because a child has been brought to India from a foreign country does not necessarily mean that the domestic court should decide the custody issue. It would be in accord with the principle of comity of courts to return the child to the jurisdiction of the foreign court from which he or she has been removed,” the court said.

“If an interim or an interlocutory order passed by a foreign court has to be disregarded, there must be some special reason for doing so. No doubt we expect foreign courts to respect the orders passed by courts in India and so there is no justifiable reason why domestic courts should not reciprocate and respect orders passed by foreign courts,” the bench said.

In this case, the husband had filed a case in a UK court which directed his wife to produce the children before it to decide the custody battle. The wife refused to comply with the order and filed a separate case in Coimbatore.

Referring to UK order asking authorities to repatriate his daughters, the husband filed habeas corpus petition before the Madras High Court which dismissed his plea.

Advocate Prabhjit Jauhar, appearing for the husband, submitted that custody battle should be decided by UK court as the daughters are UK citizens having been born and brought up there.

Quashing the order of the HC, the bench said the foreign court had the most intimate contact with the child and the parents and it would be the most appropriate court to decide the issue.

“It is not appropriate that a domestic court having much less intimate contact with a child and having much less close concern with a child and his or her parents (as against a foreign court in a given case) should take upon itself the onerous task of determining the best interests and welfare of the child,” it said.

The court said if a foreign court has jurisdiction, interim or interlocutory order of the foreign court should be given due weight and respect by Indian courts.

TOI | Apr 8, 2015

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