12-Year-Old Asks Father To Pay 1 Crore For Custody, Top Court Warns Mother

Hearing a child custody case, Chief Justice of India BR Gavai warned a 12-year-old girl's mother against "spoiling her mind" after the child demanded Rs 1 crore from her father if he wanted her to stay with him. The child, the court noted, also attacked her father with a stick and warned her mother that this would "come back" to her someday.

Senior Advocate PR Patwalia, appearing for the father, told the court that the couple had a matrimonial dispute, after which the district court granted the child's custody to the father. The mother's challenge to the order in the high court is pending, but she has not handed over the child's custody, the lawyer said. The high court rejected the father's contempt case, and he approached the top court.

Mr Patwalia told the bench, also comprising Justice K Vinod Chandran, that in September last year, the Supreme Court asked the district legal services authority to appoint a paralegal volunteer to ensure that the father's visitation rights are implemented. At this point, Chief Justice Gavai recounted that the child had also attacked her father with a stick in the past.

"Now, kindly see what happened yesterday. Only yesterday, again the girl has declined to come with me. And she says that 'you are harassing my mother, you have filed a contempt (case), you please give Rs 1 crore, otherwise I will not go. On top of that, in the school records, the mother has deleted the name of the father," Mr Patwali said. He added that "punishing the mother is not going to achieve anything" and sought mediation in the matter.

When the mother's counsel, Anubha Agrawal, said she was open to mediation, Chief Justice Gavai told the mother, "You are unnecessarily dragging your child, you are spoiling the career of your child, you are spoiling her mind. This will come back someday."

The court eventually referred the matter to a mediator after both sides agreed. "Taking into consideration that the dispute is a matrimonial dispute, we consider it appropriate to refer the parties to mediation. With the consent of parties, we appoint Hon'ble Ms. Justice Ritu Bahri, Former Chief Justice of High Court of Uttarakhand as Mediator. The Mediator shall consider all the issues between the parties," it said.