GEETANJALI DOGRA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, the mother of the minor child Saarthik Mehta aged 9 months on the date 14.09.2018 i.e. the date of the impugned order passed by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), District South bearing D.No.CWC/LN/2018-19/982 seeks the setting aside of the said impugned order of the CWC (South), vide which the CWC observed to the effect that considering the best interest of the child who was just nine months old, the Committee decided to give permission to the father of the child, Commander Rahul Mehta to have access to the child Master Saarthik Mehta to meet his child for two hours on every Saturday/ Sunday during the day time with mutual convenience of the both parents at the residence of the mother.

(2.) The respondent no.2, Mr. Rahul Mehta, father of the minor child is indicated to have filed an application under Section 2 (14) (iii) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 to restore the basic right of the child under Article 9 of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which provides that in the event of separation of parents, children have the right to live with their parents unless it is bad for them and the children whose parents do not live together have the right to stay in contact with both parents, unless this might hurt the child which convention has been ratified by India on 11th December, 1992.

(3.) Vide the impugned order, it is indicated that the CWC interacted with both parents and conducted an enquiry on 13.08.2018 when the mother of the child had been called upon to produce the child by the CWC when the respondent no.2 herein i.e. father of the child had moved an application through a child right activist that the child was being denied love, care and protection of his biological father by the biological mother, the child was, however, not produced by the petitioner herein stating that the child was unwell. The CWC is indicated to have considered the S.I.R. of the mother and the father and thereafter passed the impugned order dated 14.09.2018.