Hindu guardian vs Muslim mother

Now In Supreme court.

New Delhi: In 2004, a Hindu man found a six-year-old Muslim boy wandering the streets alone and took him in. Three years later, the biological parents turned up and claimed him though the boy didn’t want to return to them.





In resolving this unusual tangle, the Supreme Court on Wednesday opted for a humanitarian approach rather than sticking to the dictates of law.


Seeking an affidavit from the mother on her finances since the father has died, the bench wondered: “Why would we order the boy, who has now spent seven years under the good care of the person, be given back to the mother disregarding the child’s wish. The mother did not lodge a complaint about her son missing. So, let the child attain majority and himself decide the question.”


Finder Keeper

Akbar, 6, strays in Allahabad while his dad drinks away

Surfaces in Lucknow, where tea stall owner Aiku Lal takes him in, puts him in school, keeping name, religion intact

3 yrs on, parents go to court. HC says boy should remain with Lal. Parents appeal in SC , Child’s wish vital, says SC

Despite the mother being the natural guardian, the Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned returning a Muslim boy, brought up for seven years by a Hindu man, especially given that the child did not want to return.

Six-year-old Akbar went with his father to a roadside drinking joint in Allahabad in 2004. The father got drunk and didn’t notice the child slip away. Strangely, the parents — Mohammad Abbas and Shahnaz Begum — did not lodge a missing complaint with the police.

The boy surfaced in Lucknow before a tea stall in Qaiser Bagh.Stall owner Aiku Lal took pity and advertised about him in TV channels. When he got no response, he took the boy in as a son, admitting him to school without changing his name or religion.In 2007, the parents moved the Allahabad HC seeking custody. They accused Lal of using the boy as bonded labour. Lal proved with school marksheets and other documents that he had been taking care of the child. .Akbar too refused to go with his parents being fond of Aiku Lal.

“We are a secular country and the consideration of caste and creed should not be allowed to prevail.

If there can be inter-caste marriages, which is not very uncommon, there can also be an inter-caste father and son relationship and that need not raise eyebrows,” Justice Barkat Ali Zaidi ruled in 2007.The parents then moved an appeal before SC. “We know the mother is the natural guardian under the law. But, the child does not want to go back, abandoning the man who brought him up,” the bench said while inquiring about Shahnaz’s financial status as the boy’s father died in the meantime.