Widow to get her childrens’ custody after 4 years

Surat: The district and sessions court ordered the in-laws of the widow to hand over the custody of her two minor children, under the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act 1956, as she is capable of taking care of them.Jagruti Chaudhary (40), a resident of Zankhvav village in Mangrol taluka of Surat district, filed a plea in the district and sessions court demanding the custody of her children from her sister-in-law, Sangeeta Chaudhary, brother-in-law Umed Chaudhary and mother-in-law Kanchan Chaudhary.Jagruti lives at her in-laws’ neighbourhood and runs a government-approved fair price shop. Jagruti married Arjun Chaudhary in April 2002 and has two children, 16-year-old daughter Urvashi and 12-year-old son Lakit. Arjun died in September, 2016.In her plea she said that one year after her husband’s death, her brother-in-law (Umed) and sister-in-law Sangeeta came to her residence and took her two children with them and since then her children are in their custody. She further said that her brother-in-law has two kids. She has been requesting for the custody of her children but was being denied by them and was being threatened as well by Umed, who asked her not to come to his house again. She urged that since she was the mother of the two children, she could take better care of her kids.“Even when her husband was alive, her two children were living with Umed and his family and they were doing well and were studying in school and were not in illegal custody. Umed is a member of the taluka panchayat and his wife Sangeeta is sarpanch of the village. Jagruti has filed this plea to harass them,” Umed’s advocate argued in the court.“She is not capable of taking care of her children whereas her in-laws were capable of doing it and were not preventing them from visiting their mother,” Umed’s advocate argued further.“Jagruti is the biological mother of the two minor children. Children should be in the custody of their parents. Records show that she is capable of taking care of her children. She is a widow and it is necessary to have her children with her,” the court ordered.