Custody case: Bombay HC orders red corner notice to Italian national

Mumbai: Hearing a case of child custody, the Bombay High Court on Monday directed interpol wing of CBI to issue a red corner notice to bring back an Italian who has left India for his home country with his adopted 7-year-old daughter despite a written undertaking to the court that he would not go abroad with the child.

A bench headed by Justice V M Kanade also directed the CBI Interpol to issue a yellow corner notice to bring back the child whose custody was being sought by her mother, who hails from Goa.

The bench, while asking the CBI interpol to issue the notices to the father and daughter respectively, however, ruled that no coercive action be taken against them.

The bench asked the authorities to ensure that both, father and daughter, were presented before the High Court after they were brought from Italy to face the proceedings filed by the Goan woman.

The couple were locked in a custody battle over the child. They were given joint guardianship of the girl by a Pune adoption Centre. However, they split after a year. In 2011, the Italian husband got the custody of the child from a Pune family court.

Both challenged the family court order in the Bombay High Court. The wife challenged the order as she was not granted the custody of her daughter while the husband contested it after the family court refused to remove the mother as a joint legal guardian.

The HC also directed the wife to make a representation to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in the Government of India regarding her grievances.

The bench further asked the MEA to intimate the HC order (regarding red corner and yellow corner notices being issued to the father and daughter) to the Indian Embassy in Italy which in turn would convey it to Juvenile court in Venice, Italy.

The HC also asked the Union of India to explore the possibility of providing legal aid to the applicant (wife).