A family court ruling that prohibited the mother from moving to Poland with her daughter was overturned on Wednesday by the Bombay High Court, which remarked that a woman “cannot be compelled to choose between her child and her work.”
A petition from the mother asking for permission to move to Krakow, Poland with her nine-year-old daughter was being heard by a single-judge bench presided over by Justice Bharti Dangre. The woman, who is employed by a private company in Pune, had received an offer from her employer for a project in Poland.
The husband had objected to the request, saying that he would never get to see the child again if she was relocated away from him. The man said that the woman’s sole motivation for moving to Poland was to sever the father-daughter relationship. The lawyers even brought up Poland’s continuing conflict with its neighbours, Russia and Ukraine.
Although the court stated that “there has never been, and there will never be, anything quite as precious as the love between a daughter and her father,” Justice Bharti Dangre emphasised that no court can deny a woman’s career opportunities.
However, the mother was ordered by the court to provide her daughter’s father both physical and virtual access to her. Every vacation, the woman will have to return to India so that the father can meet their daughter.
After hearing both sides’ arguments, Justice Dangre noted that the mother, who had raised the daughter solely, had custody of her up until this point. Given the girl’s age, it is crucial that she continue to live with her mother.
The judge made the decision to achieve a balance between the woman’s job aspirations and her relationship with her father. The judge stated, “A mother who is willing to work cannot be denied the chance to do so, in my opinion, and the court cannot deny her employment opportunities. It is necessary to strike a balance between the interests of the mother and father while also taking the child’s welfare into consideration.”
The court also rejected the husband’s argument that the kid would experience anxiety if she were to be uprooted and moved to a different nation right away. “Children frequently move with their parents when they do. Due to her obligations, it is also very uncommon for working women to leave their children in daycare centres “explained Justice Dangre.
The woman might take her mother with her to Poland for assistance, and the court had also highlighted that the child’s exposure and horizons would be expanded by the international travel.
