Israt Jahan Tabassum, a resident of Dhaka, had moved court against her Delhi-based ex-husband for production and restoration of custody of their minor daughter, Avantika.

As per a habeas corpus petition, Tabassum said she got married to Vijay Alreja, who converted to Islam, in October 1997. Their daughter was born on January 24, 2002 in Dhaka.

“The father (Alreja) fraudulently and by misrepresenting me procured an Indian passport for the child in 2005. Avantika was brought to India on July 17, 2006,” Tabassum alleged. Tabassum says she followed her husband to Delhi a month later in search of her daughter, who she learnt was “sent to a boarding school”. “The interest and welfare of the child is best served in the custody of the mother and not a boarding school,” Tabassum told a Division Bench led by Justice Vikramjit Sen.

The court, however, held it was “unable to accept” Tabassum’s version that she was “tricked” into losing her child after it noted an admission letter to St Helen Secondary School, Kurseong, signed by her and Alreja in July 2006.

Avantika’s parents had both at the time agreed to a Delhi address B-72, Lajpat Nagar-II, New Delhi - proving that the child was not “snatched” from her and admitted in a boarding school, the court said.

“The father has responded that admission was with consent of the mother. This indicates that her custody was shared,” noted the Bench, adding that the “only inference that can be drawn is that the child is not in the exclusive custody of her father”.

The Bench directed Alreja to take Tabassum with him when Avantika is returned to her school in seven days. “Failure to do so may leave no room but to conclude that the offending parent is motivated by selfish and egoistical reasons rather the welfare of Avantika,” the court said.