Don’t Involve Police Stations For Child Custody Arrangement: Kerala High Court Directs Family Courts
Justice Devan Ramachandran, Justice M.B. Snehalatha, Kerala High Court
The Kerala High Court dismissed an appeal related to child custody and directed the family courts not to involve police stations in child custody arrangements be that permanent or interim.
In this case, the Court noticed that Family Court made an arrangement regarding the interim custody of the child involved, the exchange was directed to be done at a police station.
The Division Bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran and Justice M.B. Snehalatha states, "we deem it necessary that the learned Family Courts are directed not to create arrangements with respect to custody of children ― be that permanent or interim ― involving police stations in any manner.”
Furthermore, the Court added, “ We direct the Registrar General of this Court to ensure that these directions are made known to all the Judges of learned Family Courts peremptorily.”
Court Reasoning
The bench referred to the decision in Indu S. v. Thomas@Manoj [2025 (3) KHC 295] which emphatically declared that “children shall not be subjected to unnecessary presence in court premises; and we have done so being fully aware that this creates deep trauma for them.”
“In the case at hand, we see that when the learned Family Court made an arrangement regarding the interim custody of the child involved, the exchange was directed to be done at a police station. In our view, this is worse than the child being forced to court premises and spaces and are sure that it requires no further expatiation or restatement.” Court noted.
Added to this Court stated “We fail to understand how the learned Family Court could have directed the child to be handed over in interim custody from a police station. We certainly cannot find favour with this.”
Cause Title: Dr. V.N. Sankarjee & Ors. v. Smt. C.M. Charisma (Mat. Appeal No. 398 of 2025)
