Supreme Court has said that any order which is passed by any foreign courts in relation to matrimonial disputes which involves Indian origin couples must be obliged by Indian courts. Supreme Court has said this in the case where relief is sought by one party or the other in India after that party return back to India and so court has given such statement to respect foreign judgments.
A Bench of Justices U U Lalit and Madan B Lokur while dealing with a child custody matter which involved Indian origin persons and who had UK citizenship so court directed that this matter must be decided in UK.
Court directed the mother to take her children back to United Kingdom and present her matter there itself. Court further said that just because the child had come to India it need not decide the custody matter in India but the child should be sent back to its original jurisdiction of foreign court where the matter was being heard and it was removed from that place just to put the matter before an Indian court.
Bench also stated that if an interim order which was passed in a foreign court is disregarded then it should be only for some special reason and as this court expects foreign courts to respect their orders passed in India, it is also justifiable that Indian domestic courts should also respect the foreign court orders.
In this matter, in UK court, husband has filed a case wherein the court had instructed the wife to bring the kids and produce them to the court to conclude on the custody matter but wife had refused to do so and later field a case in Coimbatore, India.
Husband referring to the UK order had asked the authorities to bring his girls back and so had filed habeas corpus petition in Madras High Court but his plea was rejected. Prabhjit Jauhar advocate, who is appearing for husband has said that as the girls are having UK Citizenship and born and brought up there the custody matter also should be heard in UK.
Supreme Court then quashed the High Court order and stated that foreign courts had a very close contact with the children and so it would be good for UK court to decide that matter.
By Sushma Javare