The Karnataka High Court has forged peace between a Mexican woman and her Indian husband over the custody of their twin children. The court has ordered that the twins should stay with their mother for four days and with father for three days.
The bench headed by Justice B. Veerappa and Justice K.S. Hemalekha convinced the couple to nurse their minor children together.
As per the order, the kids will stay with mother from 6 p.m. of Sunday till 1.30 p.m., Friday. They will stay with their father later.
The court had also ordered the husband, Prashanth Banarjee, to provide Rs 10,000 to nurse children and a separate house for the wife during this period. The bench had also taken a joint memo from the couple in this regard.
The court in its order mentioned that this is a case of the custody of children. "These kind of cases will have humane elements and complex issues. The decisions can't be taken just like that and the children should belong to both parents."
The bench stated that this order would prevail until the couple got the orders in the family court on their divorce petition. The court had also restricted the parents from taking their children out of the state.
Danileigh Lyra N. filed a habeas corpus petition before the court pleading to find out her children who have been brought to India without her knowledge.
Mexican national Lyra and Indian origin Prashanth Banarjee got married according to Hindu traditions on March 1, 2018 in Chennai. They shifted to Bengaluru later.
On January 1, 2019, Lyra gave birth to twins in Bengaluru. The couple went to Mexico in May of 2022. On July 20, 2022, Banerjee who had taken children out for a walk did not return home. Later, he sent a message to his wife saying he had taken the children with him to India.
Lyra came down to India and tried to lodge a complaint with the Amruthahalli police station. When the police refused to lodge the complaint and asked her to find other ways, she filed a habeas corpus petition seeking directions for the police to find her children.
The husband submitted to the court that he had not taken away children without informing wife. He submitted to the court that his wife wanted to settle down in her native country.
But, the children aged 3.8 years were admitted to pre nursery in Bengaluru. He maintained that he brought the children back to Bengaluru to continue their education.
(With inputs from IANS)
