ETTIAPPA MUDALIAR Vs. T SUBRAMANIAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE respondents before the lower court are the appellants herein. THE present appeal has been directed against the judgment and decree dated 9. 1. 1992 in G. W. O. P. No. 156 of 1990 on the file of the District Judge, chengalpattu.

(2.) THE respondent herein, who is the father of the minor ramachandran alias Anandan now aged about 4 1/2 years, has filed the Guardian wards O. P. No. 156 of 1990 under Sec. 25 (1) of the Guard-ian and Wards Act, read with Sec. 6 (a) of the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, to direct the respondents/appellants herein, who are the maternal grand parents of the minor, to hand over the custody of the minor to the respondent herein.

(3.) IN the appeal, the appellants have raised the following grounds: (i) The claim of the father/respondent is not bona fide when he himself has admitted about the second marriage in the witness box; (ii) The court below has not considered the welfare of the minor child. (iii) The court below ought to have held that the welfare of the child will be better if it is with the grand parents/appellants since the child was brought up by them from the date of death of the respondent's wife; (iv) The court below ought to have considered the agreement executed by the respondent wherein he undertook to provide maintenance as well as the-ancestral properties to the minor child, which should be brought up by the appellants. (v) The court below ought to have found that the wife of the respondent died in suspicious circumstances and that the appellants did not pursue the matter since the respondent volunteered for certain conditions as stipulated in the agreement dated 30. 5. 1990; (vi) The court below ought to have found that the respondent has lost his right to claim the custody of the minor child in view of his conduct and treatment of his wife Dhanalakshmi, which resulted in her death. (vii) The court below ought to have found that the appellants have sufficient means and capacity to bring up the minor child, (viii) The court below ought to have examined the minor child to know about his likes and dislikes as well as the harassment caused to his deceased mother by the respondent.