Father who married again can’t be guardian of children from earlier marriage

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru:

The High Court has set aside a Family Court order which had declared a father as the guardian of his two children from his first marriage. He had divorced the first wife, married again and had two more children. Considering this aspect, the High Court of Karnataka set aside the Family Court order restoring the custody of the children to his first wife.

R Lakshmi aka Uma was married to KS Hemaraj in 2004. They had two kids in 2005 and 2007. They started living separately in 2009 and obtained divorce in 2010. Hemaraj filed a petition in the Family Court in 2010 seeking custody of the children. The Family Court in 2013 appointed him as the natural guardian of the children and directed the Lakshmi to hand over the custody of their son to Hemaraj. Lakshmi challenged this with an appeal in the High Court in 2014.

The division bench of Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Shivashankar Amarannavar gave their judgment on January 17, 2023. Lakshmi ’s advocate submitted to the court that Hemaraj had remarried in 2010 and had two more children from this second marriage. His new children are now aged 9 and 7 years.

Lakshmi’s children are now 17 and 15 years of age. The HC noted that “It is not in dispute that from the second marriage, two children namely a son and a daughter aged about nine years and seven years have been born. The appellant is the biological mother of the children born to the parties from the marriage. It is not in dispute that the children are residing with the appellant and the appellant has been taking care of the children who are on the verge of attaining majority.

”Considering this, the HC set aside the Family Court order. “For the aforementioned subsequent events, order dated 10.12.2013 passed by the Family Court is set aside and the petition filed by the respondent insofar as seeking appointment as a natural guardian of the children, is hereby dismissed.” However the HC said that Hemaraj can meet his children from the first wife if he so desires. Karnataka polls 2023; A few days after four BJP leaders hopped to Congress, what is cooking in the state politics?