Don’t blindly follow foreign custody order: Supreme Court

As cases of estranged NRI couples fighting for child custody increasingly result in cross-border litigation, with one spouse getting a favourable order from a foreign court while the other moves an Indian court, Supreme Court has said courts here must make an independent assessment of what is good for the child and the ruling of the foreign court should not be automatically followed, though it must be accorded proper consideration.A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan said cases already dealt with by foreign courts were coming before it time and again and their adjudication was not easy as they involved deeply emotional and sensitive issues. It added that the welfare of the child “must be understood in the widest sense, not by money or physical comfort alone”.“This position rests on two foundations.