Kerala high court stresses need to ensure dignity and privacy of children in custody battle

Kochi: Children should be summoned to the court with great caution, and in such instances, every effort must be made to ensure they are treated with utmost dignity and privacy, and are not made to wait unnecessarily, Kerala high court has held.
A bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and M B Snehalatha made the ruling while considering a petition by the mother of a nine-year-old boy challenging a family court order, which altered its previous order and granted the custody of the child to his father. After being summoned, the boy showed extreme unwillingness to leave his mother, and he explained that he abhors going to the courts and further that he even ‘hates' the court for having ‘summoned' him again. Additionally, he stated that he feels dehumanised and stigmatised, being paraded in front of people as a virtual chattel in a dispute between his parents.
The bench directed that when it comes to the place of exchange of the child for interim or final custody, the use of court premises be avoided, unless exceptional reason is recorded; and a neutral place be thought of since this will, to a large extent, reduce the strain of the children and their fear, which they unfortunately endure on account of being forced to submit themselves to processes, over which they have no control on and which they did not seek.
The court further noted that the child appears to be more terrified and agonised, not on account of the proceedings between his parents, but because he has been caught in between and has been forced to appear in courts. The records of the boy reveal that he is suffering from ‘attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder' (ADHD), and that he is obtaining professional assistance for the same. In addition to this, the trauma and stigmatisation that he had to endure all these years have made his condition tenuous and very sad.
The bench additionally noted that it is a classic example of the harrowing and torturous trauma that a child suffers when his parents are litigating over his custody. "His tears that rolled down his cheeks; the call for deliverance which he made before us in his innocent tenor; and his remonstrance in being called into courts, to be dehumanised every time, surely, requires us to sit up and take notice," HC said. Subsequently, the bench quashed the impugned order of the family court, which altered its earlier directives.