BADAL DHAR CHOUDHURY Vs. SISIRKANA DHAR CHOUDHURY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS Rule involves a question of jurisdiction. An application was made before the learned District Judge, Alipore, by a mother for being appointed the guardian of her minor daughter. The father, the petitioner before us, was the respondent in the original court. It was contended before the learned District judge, as it is being contended before us, that the court had no jurisdiction to entertain the application.

(2.) THE facts of the case are not substantially in dispute. The petitioner as also the respondent were originally residents of Assam. In 1956 they got married and soon thereafter, migrated to Calcutta. In May 1963 the minor was born within the jurisdiction of the District Court of Alipore. It appears that in March 1966 the parties set up their matrimonial home at premises No. 15/1 Hindustan Road, within the same jurisdiction. The minor was living with her parents until March 1972 when she was sent to St. Helen's convent, Kurseong, for her education. She spent her holidays at home with her parents. There is no dispute that until the time she left for Kurseong, she was residing at 15/1 Hindustan Road. In fact, she attended South Point school, a school in the vicinity of Hindustan Road which she left in 1972 far st. Helen's Convent. At that time the relation between the petitioner and the respondent was undergoing considerable strain. It is the mother's case that the minor had to be sent to kurseong because the atmosphere a home had become too oppressive for her. Sometime in February 1974 the respondent left the Hindustan Road premises temporarily and went to stay with her sister at 15c Swinhoe Street, not far from her home, within the jurisdiction of the Alipore Court. A that time the minor was on her holiday and was living with her parents. The respondent took her to her sister's home. Soon thereafter, they returned home and the minor left for Kurseong when her school reopened.

(3.) ON February 19, 1974 the respondent made an application in the count of the District Judge at Alipore for being appointed guardian of the minor. Relation between the parties further deteriorated with the result that the respondent left the matrimonial home on 16th April, 1974. Thereafter, the respondent discovered that the petitioner had brought the minor from kurseong without her knowledge, tock her to Gauhati where the petitioner's parents lived and had her admitted into St. Mary's Convent Gauhati thereupon, on 10th May, 1974 the respondent made an application before the learned District Judge for ah order for production of the minor. By an order made on the same date the learned District Judge directed the petitioner to produce the minor in court on 20th May, 1974.