SANJIV SANGWAN Vs. SANGEETA SANGWAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This suit for permanent injunction has been filed praying 381 that the Defendant be restrained from removing the children of the parties, namely, Uday Sangwan and Surya Sangwan from Pinegrove School, Kausali, District Solan. During the pendency of the suit IA No. 4735 / 2001 was disposed of on 15.5.2001 after recording that " Learned Counsel for the Defendant has no objection if the Plaintiff shifts his children from Kausali to Kodaikanal subject to the condition that expenses will be borne by the Plaintiff." The children are still studying in the Kodaikanal International School.

(2.) The above orders have been followed in spirit by Shri Sukhdev Singh, Additional District Judge, Delhi in terms of his Order dated 28.1.2003 whereby the Defendant (who is the mother of the children and wife of the Plaintiff) was permitted to meet the children as per the School Regulations. The Plaintiff was directed to pay an amount of Rs. 5,000/- towards her travelling and other expenses.

(3.) The change of school has been ordered by this Court without insisting for any amendment being carried out in the plaint. In matters concerning the custody of minors the Court exercises parens patrae jurisdiction. Since the Court acts as the parents of the children concerned all other considerations and legal formalities stand subjugated to the interests of the children. A plethora of precedents indicate that the Court should eschew a pedantic reading of the pleadings and endeavour to extract from the pleadings the intention of the parties. In an ordinary civil suit I would be loathe and slow to undertake the exercise I am doing in the present case and travel to the extrimity of reading the prayers as referring to the School to which the children are presently admitted to, rather than the School specifically mentioned in the prayer. If a strict adherence to the procedure were to be followed, it may have compelled me to dismiss the suit, but in doing so, I may have seriously endangered and jeopardised the interests and welfare of the children concerned. Hence I shall read the prayer in the manner indicated above. This is especially so since, at the present juncture there is no dispute that remains between the mother and the father in respect of the schooling of their children at the Kodaikanal International School.