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‘Woman should not be made to choose between child and career’: Bombay HC
The Bombay high court allowed a mother to take her daughter with her to Poland where she has secured a job.
A woman must not be forced to choose between her child and her career, the Bombay High Court said last week, as it allowed a mother to take her daughter with her to Poland where she has secured a job. Justice Bharati Dangre set aside a lower court's order that restricted the woman's travel on grounds her right to professional development had been overlooked.
"On noticing that the impugned order has failed to consider an important aspect of right to development, being vested in the petitioner as she cannot be asked to choose between her child and her career, the impugned order is quashed and set aside," Justice Dangre stated.
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The court also, however, directed that the father get sufficient access to his daughter, underlining that her absence from the country could only be compensated by permitting the father overnight access; "... since ultimately it is not the quantity of time spent with the children, but the quality time, which assumes great significance to develop a parental bond."
Specifically, the father was granted three hour's daily access, as also overnight access, when the mother and daughter return to India in December for the winter break. In April, during the spring break, he will get overnight access for four days and daily access of five hours for the remaining period. In the summer, he shall get 25 days overnight access.
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The court reasoned the father is currently able to spend time, virtually and physically, with the child at definite intervals. "He is naturally concerned about her welfare... and his only anxiety is the bond between the two shall be severed, if she is moved to Poland."
The woman - an engineer by profession - had filed a petition in a Pune family court asking to be declared the sole guardian of her daughter, permission for them to go to Poland, and a no-objection from her husband, the father, to complete the child's visa formalities.
The application, however, was rejected, prompting her to move the High Court.
