June 11, 2024
Staff report
LAHORE:
In a significant ruling addressing inequalities faced by working women in marriage, divorce, and child custody, the Lahore High Court ordered last month that being a working woman cannot be a disqualification for a mother to claim custody of her minor children.
The court ruled that welfare of both the minor boys lies with their mother. “There is no substitute of the natural love, affection and care of an educated mother,”Justice Raheel Kamran Sheikh announced while deciding the custody case of two boys from a divorced couple.
Dr. Muhammad Asif and Dr. Sana Sattar were married in 2016, while Dr. Sana Sattar was still a fourth-year MBBS student. Their first son was born in 2017 and the second in 2018. The couple divorced in 2019, leading to a protracted battle for custody of their two sons.
After the couple’s divorce, the father accused the mother of being more devoted to her career in medicine than her children, informing the court that she had gone to college and not breastfed their firstborn. He added that she lived alone in Lahore after the divorce, arguing that no one would be available to care for the boys, while they were well cared for at his home by his second wife and other female family members.
He also claimed the boys were closer to him, alleging that their mother had abandoned them at an early age.
In her defence, the mother, through her counsel, argued that she left her son after 40 days of his birth due to her final year MBBS commitments, but this could not permanently deprive her of the right to seek custody of her children.
Acknowledging that working mothers are a reality of the day, and “their participation in the professional life is essential for the progress of the society”, the judge said the new role of working mothers, as opposed to that of the stay-at-home mothers, requires adjustment of expectations from her.
Responding to the father’s plea that one son does not wish to reside with his mother due to her long absence, the court noted that the child is too young to determine if he wishes to be with mother or father. In fact, it observed that a son was not allowed to meet her mother for years which shows improper upbringing of the child.
The court emphasized that while the father is responsible for maintaining the children, this is not a decisive factor in determining custody.
The working mother had filed an application for the custody of her two sons, aged five and four, against their father, a child specialist, in Layyah. The senior civil judge of the family division had allowed her application and established a schedule for their father to meet his sons.
Feeling aggrieved, the father petitioned in the LHC, maintaining that the mother of his sons had been negligent towards them.
Dismissing the petition of the father, the court ruled that the welfare of both the minors lies in their custody with their mother, and that the court cannot express insensitivity to the needs of the minors because their mother is a working woman.
This ruling signifies a progressive step towards recognizing and addressing the challenges faced by working women in custody battles and aims to ensure the welfare of children.