Can Mentally ill wife claim for minor Child’s Custody

The both the couples got married in the month of December 2017 and in the month of August 2020 the baby boy was born, the wife here in this case accused the husband and her in laws for Dowry Harassment and also for the physical cruelty that was being filed by her in July 2022.

The Minor child  was in the custody of the father and in-laws  therefore the mother of the child filed the  writ petition before the honourable court to produce her 2 years child before her.

The Petitioner here that is the mother alleged that her in laws in  which her sister in law slapped her many times and after such worst incident, she was thrown out of the house of here husband, the petitioner thus asked for her child, but the respondent the child, father took it away from and her and thus she argued before the court that the child is so small, hence he need to get fed by the mother, thus the custody of the child   should be handed over to the petitioner.

In this case the Husband and in laws said that the wife is suffering from the depression and also she has the suicidal nature and she is very aggressive for which she is under the proper medication. They also said that the petitioner was late nighter party giant and she is also indulged in alcohol consumption and she is also not able to take care of the child and she also don’t give the child a proper feed or proper diet due to which the child was hospitalised due to its health issue, the in-laws and the husband also said that the petitioner was self abusive in nature and also she is mentally ill before the marriage, therefore the respondents argued as the mother’s condition is not well enough that she can take care of the child  or look after the welfare of the child, they also said the the child was not illegally detained the father is his legal guardian.

After observing all the arguments the court held that in the case if the age of the child is less than 5 years of age the custody of the child would be given  to the mother and it’s the duty of the court who will decide that the custody is unlawful or not the welfare of the child is merely important. 

The court further provided that if the mother is under treatment and under the treatment of a psychiatrist and there is the risk of harm to that particular child from the mother for the interest of the child the child will be separated from the mother only till the course of treatment and medication.

In the entire case the respondents was answered the petitioner was not under any medical care or any such rehabilitation centre and if the petitioner would be in the medical care the age of the child at that particular time would be 3 years of age therefore the separation of the child from the mother is not the solution and at the present the petitioner was not admitted to any mental health centre where any kind of such treatment is  done but rather than that she is associated with the multinational company  therefore here in this case there was no any reason to deny the custody of the child to her as she is the natural mother of the child or the biological mother of the child.