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SC asks Kumble’s wife to settle issue out of court
The Supreme Court on Monday advised former India captain Anil Kumble's wife Chethana Kumble to try and reach an out-of-court settlement with her former husband KV Jahgirdar over the custody of their 15-year-old daughter, reports Satya Prakash.
The Supreme Court on Monday advised former India captain Anil Kumble's wife Chethana Kumble to try and reach an out-of-court settlement with her former husband KV Jahgirdar over the custody of their 15-year-old daughter.
A bench headed by Justice Tarun Chatterjee asked Chethana and Jahgirdar to use mediation to find a solution to the custody battle after the counsel for both the parties agreed that the child was their prime concern. The bench gave them three weeks to attempt an out-of-court settlement.
The SC was hearing Chethana's petition challenging a Karnataka High Court decision referring the custody case to a family court. Presently, the child is residing with her mother and surrogate father Anil Kumble.
On behalf of Chethana, counsel Mukul Rohtagi said the matter had been finally settled by the SC in 2004 and raking up the issue again and again was not in the interest of the child. He said the media coverage would adversely affect the child.
Jahgirdar's counsel Prashant Bhushan argued that his client was interested in the shared custody of the child as latest research showed that shared parenting was the best way forward for children of broken marriages.
Chethana had secured divorce from Jahgirdar in early 1999 and within months she married Kumble.
She had moved the Bangalore family court in Dec 1999 for the custody of her six-year-old daughter left behind with her father. Jahgirdar too moved the family court. The family court upheld Jahgirdar's plea and allowed him to have the custody of her daughter.
But on an appeal by Chethana, the Karnataka High Court gave the custody to her mother, on the ground that in her early years, the child's upkeep and welfare would be taken care of by a female family member.
