No Reconciliation Between Parents, Supreme Court Sends Children to Boarding Schools

New Delhi: In a first-of-its-kind order, the Supreme Court has taken away the custody of their children from a sparring Delhi couple and made a district judge in-charge of their well-being.

The judge will now get the teenagers admitted in boarding schools at Nainital, away from the ugly tug of war between their parents.

“This is a case where several orders passed by this court in the interest of the children and with the tacit consent of both the parties have been flouted flagrantly. Therefore, we direct the District and Sessions Judge, Nainital to see that the children are admitted in the institutions referred to above,” directed a bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and AM Khanwilkar.

The court asked the mother to handover the custody of the two children to the District and Sessions Judge, Nainital. The judge, it added, shall take the children to their respective schools.

The judges held that the Court has a duty to act in the best interest of the children, who require to be kept away from both their mother and father, so as to ensure their minds are not polluted any further.

Saddened by the extremely strained relationship between the couple and repeatedly failing to counsel them, the bench resorted to the extraordinary recourse and said that the children should rather study in a more congenial atmosphere away from company of either of their parents.

“Having regard to the strained relationship between the parties, we are of the view that for the time being it is in the interest of the children that they be put up in a boarding school, since, at this stage it is not in their interest to have the exclusive company of either their father or their mother,” held the Court in a recent order.

The bench initially asked the mother and the father to file a list of boarding schools in Delhi itself, to put the children in, but later decided to send them out of the city so that they could study in peace.

“We find, in the background of this case, it is not in the interest of both children to continue either with the father and the mother,” it said in its order.

The bench noted that despite all the assistance and professional counselling given to the parents, the bitterness between them have only gone up. Thus, it was necessary that both the children, staying with their mother, should get a better atmosphere to build their career and enjoy small pleasures of life.

The father said he is willing to bear the educational expenses of the children and the court asked the parents to take the children to the boarding schools at Nainital for the admission formalities.

It has further asked the administration in both the schools to admit the children with minimal formalities after noticing that admission dates have already expired.