BHOLA NATH Vs. SHARDA DEVI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by the father has arisen out of an order of Mr. P.K. Nag, District Judge of Shahabad, allowing the application of the mother for the guardianship of her minor son.

(2.) Appellant Bhola Nath was married to the respondent Sharda Devi some time in 1949, and she gave birth to a male child on 13-4-1951, at Buxar, which is her mother's place. According to her, the appellant, who is a resident of Banaras, was not a man of good morals, he was given to drinking also and she was illtreated by him. She was sent to Buxar by the husband to deliver the child, and, after the child was born, she went to her husband's place at Banaras for a few months. She was again illtreated, and she came back to her mother's place at Buxar with the baby. Some time later, the appellant came to Buxar to take her back to Banaras, but she refused to go there because of her illtreatment. A few days before the present application was filed, her husband stealthily took away the child from Buxar to Banaras. Various efforts were made on behalf of the mother to get back the child, but the child was not returned. The application was made on 6-6-1952, when the child was a little over a year old. The application was opposed by the appellant on the ground that the Shahabad District Judge's Court had no jurisdiction, and that the appellant, as father, was entitled, in law, to the guardianship of the child. The appellant repudiated the allegation of the mother that he had stealthily taken away the child from Buxar to Banaras. His case on that point was that the mother of the child, along with the baby, was living with him at Banaras, and that one day the mother left the child at Banaras and came away to Buxar taking some ornaments with her.

(3.) The learned Judge in the Court below has held that the Court had complete jurisdiction, that the appellant had forfeited his right to be the guardian of the minor child, that the allegation that the mother left the child at Banaras and came away to Buxar was entirely false and that the mother's version that the appellant stealthily took away the child from Buxar to Banaras was established. On these findings, the order in question was made.