Telangana High Court: While deciding a case, wherein, a writ of habeas corpus was filed seeking to direct the respondents to produce the minor child, namely, Nilapu Akhil, before this Court and hand over the custody of the minor child to the petitioner, the Division Bench of A. Abhishek Reddy and Juvvadi Sridevi, JJ. held that the minor child was not in illegal custody and directed the Child Welfare Committee to hand over the minor child to his natural parents.
In the present case, the Court vide its order dated 31-10-2022 had directed the Mahimia Ministeries (Respondent 5), who had the custody of the minor child, to produce the minor child before this Court. Pursuant to the order, the minor child was produced before the Court and the Court interacted with the minor child.
During the interaction, the minor child stated that he was studying in a private school and staying in a hostel. The minor child stated that he was interested in staying with natural parents only and expressed some apprehensions regarding the visitation rights to his foster parents. But after persuasion, the minor child agreed for visitation rights to his foster parents.
Hence, the Court dismissed the writ petition as the minor child was not in illegal custody as it was alleged and directed the Child Welfare Committee to hand over the minor child to the natural parents. The Court also clarified that the foster parents shall have the visitation rights to see the minor child on every first Sunday of every month to enable them to spend time and interact with the minor child. Moreover, the Court directed natural parents to make sure that the education of the minor child was continued by making him join a good school.
[Nilapu Rajseh v. The State of Telangana, 2022 SCC OnLine TS 2690, decided on 7-11-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
J C Francis, Advocate for the Petitioner(s);
Additional Advocate General TG, for the Respondent(s).