HC: Woman accused of killing her husband can’t get custody of her child

HC: Woman accused of killing her husband can’t get custody of her child

Rajesh Kumar Pandey TNN

Prayagraj: 02.03.2021 

The Allahabad high court has held that a woman accused of killing her husband cannot be given custody of her minor daughter, considering the welfare of the child, unless she is acquitted in the case.

While dismissing a habeas corpus writ petition filed by Gyanmati Kushwaha and another person on Friday, Justice JJ Munir observed that if the mother is acquitted in the murder case by the concerned court, she would have the right to move court for her daughter’s custody, which would then be decided in accordance with law.

The court passed this order in a habeas corpus writ petition filed by a woman residing in Mumbai, who had alleged that on May 11, 2018 her husband came to his native place at Jhansi while she stayed back in Mumbai. Later, she received a call from Kamal Kushwaha, her husband’s maternal uncle, on May 13, 2018 that some unknown person had killed her husband. However, when she reached Jhansi with her daughter, she was falsely implicated in her husband’s murder case and was arrested while her daughter was taken away by her husband’s maternal uncle. Since then the child was in his custody.

Hence, she filed the present habeas corpus writ petition seeking custody of her minor daughter, Drisha Kushwaha, aged about two years. The court while deciding the petition considered the issue that whether in the interest of the child, mother can be denied her custody only on possibility that she might be involved in the murder of her husband.