‘Inter-parental conflicts have plagued Indian courts’

Renowned advocate Anil Malhotra while speaking about Hague Convention said that it provides an expeditious method to return a child taken from one member nation to another. The convention seeks “to protect children internationally from the harmful effects of their wrongful removal or retention and to establish procedures to ensure their prompt return to the state of their habitual residence, as well as to secure protection for the rights of access.” He said that India is not a signatory body for the Hague Convention and thus has no laws to protect the rights of removed children.

Speaking on the occasion, Justice Tirath Singh Thakur said, “My only advice to the students is that they should never let go any chance to perform. Like life, profession too is a stage and one should believe in performing the best”. He added that corruption will be dealt very strictly at his end.

Dr Justice A R Lakshmanan said, “To send back or not — to return or not to return is a dilemma which plagues the Indian courts in the matter of inter-parental child removal from the overseas. About 30 million non-resident Indians live in 130 countries. Their multiplying numbers have elevated the problem to a high degree in inter-parental conflicts which originate in foreign lands but descend on the Indian soil. There is no legislation available in the Indian statute books, which is geared to handle inter-country conflicts in matters of child removal.”