The child custody cases are emotionally taxing. Women live under
constant fear of losing the custody of their young one’s whose
emotions can easily be manipulated during the litigation process. On
the other side, the concerned child also lives under constant fear of
having to ‘choose’ one of the parents and letting down the other.
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To save women and children from the uncertainty
during custody battles, we have been able to evolve effective
pre-litigation and litigation strategies. One of the effective
strategies is to physically take custody of the
child with the help of police or social work
agencies and immediately thereafter, file for
custody petition and obtain an ad-interim
injunction against the husband restraining him
and his family members from picking up the child
from her custody. This has worked well in most
cases and women have been saved from much heart
ache and anxiety about the outcome of the
litigation since they retain physical custody
while the litigation is going on.
While this strategy has given women some solace,
the issues of access to the husband continues to cause mental trauma.
Courts insist on providing access to the father even in cases where
the father has been negligent regarding his duties and obligations
towards his child or has been physically abusive. One of the ways in
which we have been able successfully circumvent the problem is to
insist upon ‘supervised access’ within court premises.
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Through these strategies some of the women’s
fears have been alleviated. But this is only an interim measure which
can continue until the end of litigation. But the strategy gives women
some respite and time to negotiate the final terms of access. Even
children learn to negotiate the situation better and are able to cope
with access orders.
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