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Supreme Court of India 2020-02-18 disposed

SOUMITRA KUMAR NAHAR vs PARUL NAHAR

Bench: 2 — A.M. Khanwilkar, Ajay Rastogi

In Brief

In a bitter matrimonial custody dispute spanning years, parents fought over visitation and guardianship of their two young children. The Supreme Court held that a child's best interest—not parental preferences—is the paramount principle in custody cases. The Court rejected the father's plea to overturn earlier consent orders and the mother's attempt to unilaterally withdraw from a settlement. It affirmed the interim arrangement placing children in boarding school with structured vacation-based access to both parents, allowing them to grow away from the marital conflict while maintaining ties to both. The Court gave liberty to either party to independently file custody petitions before competent courts, to be decided expeditiously without influence from this judgment."

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Family Law Custody of Children Matrimonial Disputes Guardianship Children's Welfare Mediation

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