An unnamed Parsi woman involved in a divorce and custodial proceeding has been directed by the Bombay High Court to take their seven-year-old son to Poona and readmit him to a school there, reports The Times of India (TOI) of January 8, 2018. The woman, married in 2008 had reportedly last year left Poona for her father’s Bombay residence, and admitted the child to a school in the city. "The fact that the child was born in Poona and lived there till he was removed cannot be lost sight of at this stage,” noted Justices R. Sawant and S. Kotwal, adding that they were of the view that the child would "not suffer if he is moved back to Poona.” The TOI report notes that though proceedings were pending in the family court, the woman lodged proceedings in the High Court and in other courts, where she asked for permanent custody of her son, a practice the Court "frowned upon.”
Her husband had approached the Poona district court last year with a plea for divorce and custody of the son and sought an injunction against his wife taking their son out of Poona. His lawyers told the newspaper that she took the child to Bombay and admitted him to a school there "despite an oral undertaking” and initiated proceedings against him before the High Court to restrain him from taking possession of their son.
The child had mentioned that he "liked both schools and was looking forward to meet his friends in Poona,” at a preliminary hearing in September 2017, when a single judge of the High Court had ordered the woman to return with the child to Poona.