MADHAVAN NAIR Vs. RAVINDRAN UNNI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two Appeals are directed against the common Judgment passed by the Family Court, in two proceedings initiated before it under the provisions of the Guardians and Wards Act, in respect of the custody of one Varun, a minor child. G & W.C. No. 73/87 was filed by the grand-parents of the said Varun to appoint them as guardians of their grand-child and G & W.C. No. 75/87 was filed by the father of the said Varun to get custody of his son. The first Petition came to be dismissed and the second Petition came to be allowed and therefore, the grand-parents who happen to be the petitioners in the first Petition and respondents in the second Petition have preferred these Appeals.

(2.) The evidence has been recorded in the first petition G & W.C. No. 73/87 and in the lower Court the parties have been referred to by virtue of the ranks they had occupied in the 1st Petition. For the sake of convenience we will also adopt the same course of reference to the parties, by virtue of their ranks occupied in G & W.C. No. 73/87 or by virtue of their relationship as occasion may demand.

(3.) Certain factual events leading up to the filing of the Petitions are practically undisputed, though the parties are at variance in respect of the cause or reasons which led upto the said events. We would in the first instance refer to the undisputed events. Usha the daughter of the petitioners was married to the respondent on 15-7-79. Both the respondent and his wife Usha lived together at Calcutta where the respondent was working during the said time till 23-12-79, on which date she left her matrimonial home to Bangalore to reside with her parents. By that time she had become pregnant and on 7-7-80 she gave birth to Varun a male child. Both Usha and her husband respondent filed a joint Petition for divorce by mutual consent in the Court of the City Civil Judge, Bombay, in M.J.P. 844/82. On 29-4-82 the Bombay City Civil Court passed the order. It reads: