Delhi High Court to consider framing guidelines on child custody, visitation rights and parenting plan

The Delhi High Court recently indicated that it will consider framing guidelines on child custody, visitation rights and parenting plans tied to relation to matrimonial disputes in Delhi [Ayushman Initiative for Child Rights & Anr. Vs High Court of Delhi & Ors.].

The Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia was considering a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed seeking the formulation of such guidelines.

The Court has directed the PIL petitioner to make a representation to the Registrar General within a fortnight, following which the administrative side of the Court may look into framing such guidelines.

“On receipt of such representation, the Registrar General of this Court shall place the matter before the appropriate Committee/authority, which shall take a decision in terms of the prayers made in this writ petition for formulating such policy in consultation with the stakeholders," the Court said.

The petition was filed by not-for-profit organisations, Ayushman Initiative for Child Rights and the Ekam Nyaay Foundation which is helmed by journalist Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj.

The NGOs called on the Court to issue child access and custody guidelines along with a parenting plan in cases involving matrimonial disputes, child custody and visitation rights. 

They stated that such guidelines have already been framed by the Calcutta High Court and the Karnataka High Court. 

The NGOs added that they learnt from an RTI reply that no uniform guidelines governing child access and visitation exist in Delhi. Therefore, the PIL petition was moved seeking the adoption of similar guidelines.

Their petition stated that the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development too has acknowledged that the Calcutta High Court Guidelines form the model standardized custody framework, which could be adopted by other High Courts.

After hearing preliminary submissions in the matter on February 4, the Chief Justice said,

“Make a representation, we will consider.” 

Advocates Manav Gupta, Sahil Garg, Ankit Gupta, Abhinav Jain, Mithil Malhotra, Aryan Pandey and Akshat Bajpai appeared for the NGOs. 

Advocates Padma Priya and Poornima Gupta appeared for the Delhi High Court (administrative side).

[Read order]