Children have right to love and affection of parents and grandparents: Bombay High Court

Children have the right to love and affection of both parents as well as grandparents, the Bombay High Court observed on Wednesday while ordering a woman to grant access of her children to her estranged husband for a period of four days. .Single-judge Justice Anuja Prabhudesai was hearing a plea filed by husband seeking temporary custody of his children, who are presently in the custody of his wife. The husband highlighted that his father (grandfather of the children) has some health issues and wishes to meet his grandchildren. He further pointed out that despite court orders, his wife didn't allow him to meet his children on their birthday last month."Needless to state that the petitioner-father, the non-custodial parent cannot be deprived of his right to spend quality time and enjoy the company of the children. Furthermore, the children also have right to love and affection of both parents as well as grandparents. This is essential for personal development and overall well being of the children," Justice Prabhudesai observed..The bench, therefore, ordered the wife to bring the children at the Phoenix Mall in Pune on April 14 morning and to spend time with her husband and children together till evening. The children, the judge said, would then be in custody of their father, who would bring them back to the mall on April 17 morning and hand over their custody to his wife.Further, the court referred their matrimonial dispute to Justice (retd.) Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi for mediation so as to help the couple amicably settle their disputes. The mediator was asked to submit a report within six months..The husband filed the present plea seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against his wife for not obeying the orders of the High Court to give him access to his children.The couple parted ways in 2018, and since then had an arrangement to exchange the custody of their twins sons, who are 10 years old at present. However, after June 2020, the plea stated, the wife restricted her husband from meeting his children, which led to the present petition..Advocate Ajinkya Udane appeared for the husband while advocate Gauri Godse appeared for the wife.[Read order]