Supreme Court gives in to 14-year-old's wish, entrusts her custody to aunt over biological father

The Supreme Court on Monday restored the custody over a teenage girl to her aunt, by setting aside a Patna High Court order that had handed over the girl's custody to her biological father with whom she had not resided since birth..The stability and welfare of the child are paramount, a bench of Justices CT Ravikumar and Rajesh Bindal said after noting that the girl wanted to stay with her paternal aunt's family."Keeping in view her age at present, she is capable of forming an opinion in that regard. She was quite categoric in that regard when we interacted with her. She cannot be treated as a chattel at the age of 14 years to hand over her custody to the respondent No.2, where she has not lived ever since her birth," the bench added while granting custody of the child to her aunt. .The observations came while hearing an appeal against a Patna High Court order that had taken away the 14-year-old from the custody of her aunt's family on the ground that the aunt had biological children.The High Court had acted on a habeas corpus petition filed by the biological father.The aunt then moved the apex court challenging the High Court order.The top court at the outset noted that the aunt in her appeal was not claiming guardianship or adoption but was only seeking the child's custody.Based on its interaction with the parties in chambers, the Court found the child quite intelligent and aware of her welfare. "She categorically stated that she is happy with the family where she has been brought up. She has other brother and sister. She is having cordial relations with them. She does not wish to be destabilized," the Court said. The aunt having since married or conceiving twice is not a deterrent for the Court to conclude that the best interests of the child remain with the aunt, the bench added..The appeal was, thus, allowed and the aunt's custody over the girl was restored..Advocates Amit Pawan, Anand Nandan, Abhishek Amritanshu, Aakarsh, Hassan Zubar Waris, Suchit Singh Rawat, and Shivangi appeared for the appellants.Advocates Shovan Mishra, Bipasa Tripathy, Sagarika Sahoo, Anam Charan Panda, Hitendra Nath Rath, and Akshat Srivastava appeared for the State of Odisha and the private respondents..[Read order]