New Delhi: A court here Wednesday reserved its order on the custody of a one-year-old boy whose custody his parents had given to another couple to avoid social stigma as he was born before they were formally married.

Metropolitan Magistrate Naveen Arora reserved the order for Thursday after hearing the defence contention opposing the parents' claim.

The caregiver parents, Asha and Satveer, surrendered before the court Wednesday, but their advocate Nitin Sharma raised questions over the jurisdiction of the case.

Earlier, the court had issued warrants against the caregivers, who have refused to return the baby boy to his parents.

The court passed the order after the parents, Sushil and Pallavi, sought the custody of their child from Asha.

Sushil and Pallavi had got married secretly in February 2006 when they both were minors.

The boy was born Sep 24, 2007 at the Safdarjung Hospital here and was immediately handed over to Asha, whom they had met through a common friend, as the couple wanted to avoid uncomfortable questions from relatives.

On reaching the legal age of marriage, Pallavi and Sushil formally married Nov 22, 2007.

"Soon after their marriage, the couple approached Asha to return the child but she continued to make lame excuses on one pretext or the other and did not return the child to them despite repeated requests," Pallavi's lawyer Kamal Singh Pundhir told IANS.

"Sushil gave Rs.10,000 to Asha but she refused to hand over the baby to him until he made an additional payment of Rs.8,000. But when on May 14, Sushil went to her home with the money, she refused to give the child and challenged him to take whatever action he wanted against her," added Pundhir.

The couple then decided to move the court against Asha.

 

Source : ians