The Kerala High Court building in Ernakulam.
| Photo Credit: H. Vibhu
A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has directed all the family courts in the State not to make police stations a place for exchanging children for custody between the separated mother and father.
The Bench comprising Justice Devan Ramachandran and Justice M.B. Snehalatha passed the directive when an appeal filed against a family court order relating to custody of children came up for hearing.
The court noted that it had earlier declared that children should not be asked to be present on court premises unnecessarily to avoid trauma for them. The family court directive to hand over the child at the police station in the instant case is worse than the child being forced to come to court premises.
The judges observed, “We fail to understand how the learned family court could have directed the child to be handed over in interim custody from a police station. We certainly cannot find favour with this.”
The court directed the High Court Registrar to ensure that the court’s directives are made known to all the judges of the family courts peremptorily.
Published – May 23, 2025 10:02 am IST
