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‘Ram was king, but kids with Sita’: Madhya Pradesh High Court invokes Ramayana to deny repatriation of child to Canada
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Madhya Pradesh High Court news: Blending modern legal principles with “civilizational norms” from the Ramayana and Mahabharat, the Madhya Pradesh High Court recently refused to direct the repatriation of a minor child to Canada, despite a foreign custody order.Justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Binod Kumar Dwivedi, while dismissing a man’s plea to repatriate the 9-year-old child to Canada, pointed out that the mother is portrayed as the “first home, first teacher, and first protector”, making the child’s right to stay with her a “civilizational norm”, not merely a “modern legal construct”.The Madhya Pradesh High Court further held that Indian courts are not bound to “mechanically enforce” foreign custody orders if such enforcement would be contrary to the child’s welfare. “In Ramayan and Mahabharat period, if we see the role of a mother and her rights for a child in Ramayana: Mother is the first refuge of the child,” it said. Further highlighting that motherhood is not extinguished by separation, the Madhya Pradesh High Court referred to Mahabharat. “Karna is born to Kunti and raised by another woman (Radha), but Kunti remains the moral mother throughout his life..,” the April 20 order read. “जननी जÛमभिूमƱ èवगा[दǒप गरȣयसी (Mother and motherland are greater than heaven),” it added, quoting Valmiki Ramayan, Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 20. The court also pointed out that the principles provided in Ramayan and Mahabharat resonate with modern law, such as the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956 and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). “The Ramayan and Mahabharat do not frame custody as a dispute between parents, but as a duty owed to the child,” it added. Justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Binod Kumar Dwivedi highlighted that motherhood is not extinguished by separation. (AI-enhanced image)‘Sita raised Luv, Kush’ The Madhya Pradesh High Court pointed out that while mothers were venerated in Hindu philosophy with concepts like “matru devo bhava (mother is divine)”, this spiritual reverence did not translate into legal rights. The mother’s role was confined to nurturing and early childhood care, but without any legal recognition. The court mentioned that after Mata Sita was separated from Shri Ram, their sons Luv and Kush were raised exclusively by their mother, in the hermitage of Maharishi Valmiki. Despite Shri Ram being their father and the king of Ayodhya, the children remain with the mother, emphasising emotional security, moral upbringing and maternal guardianship. The Madhya Pradesh High Court pointed out that evolution of Hindu mothers’ custody rights in India represents one of the most significant transformations in Indian family law. ‘No mechanical enforcing of foreign order’ The court clarified that the Supreme Court has consistently held that comity of courts is important but not absolute, and welfare of the child is the paramount consideration. In matters relating to the custody of a minor child, the paramount consideration is the “welfare” and “best interest” of the child and not the legal rights of the parents. Concerning the impact of an order of a foreign court relating to interest, the high court clarified that the same is relevant, but not conclusive. The Madhya Pradesh High Court pointed out that an Indian court is not bound to mechanically enforce a foreign interest order, if such enforcement would be contrary to the child’s welfare. ‘Custody with mother’ The court noted that the child was produced before it and found that the child, though of tender age, has expressed comfort and emotional attachment towards her mother. The child has been residing in India for the last four years and at present she is studying in a good school. The child appears well settled in the present environment, the Madhya Pradesh High Court found. Considering the age of the child, the need of maternal care at her formatting stage, the emotional and educational stability of the child and the overall circumstances
Partly thanks to its tiger recovery rate outpacing the national average over the last decade, Madhya Pradesh now faces a unique problem: Could it have too many tigers? With the numbers pushing the 1,000-mark, the state has approached the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to assess how many tigers its forests can hold.Following a slew of reforms triggered by the Sariska wipeout in 2004, tiger numbers have been rising nationally. According to quadrennial estimation reports, India’s tiger numbers increased by 65% between 2014 and 2022, from 2,226 to 3,682. In the same period, Madhya Pradesh saw a 155% jump, from 308 to 785. The trend, say state officials, has held good since.But more tigers also means more conflict. Across India, the number of people killed by tigers increased from 224 during 2014-2019 to 418 in the next six-year cycle of 2020-2025 – a rise of 87%. Madhya Pradesh has fared better than conflict hotspots of Maharashtra (Tadoba) or Uttar Pradesh (Pilibhit). But retaliatory killings of tigers by electrocution to avenge loss of livestock, along with attacks on humans, are on the rise, prompting the uncomfortable question: how many tigers are too many for Madhya Pradesh. Carrying capacity With other factors, such as availability of water, absence of poaching etc, remaining unchanged, the size of a forest’s tiger population depends on the availability of prey animals, says Dr Rajesh Gopal, former chief of Project Tiger and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). In the simplest of calculations, it’s the total annually replenishable biomass of prey species divided by a tiger’s annual feed requirement. Prey animals differ in weight but a ballpark estimate shows that a prey base of around 350 ungulates (hoofed animals) is required to sustain a single tiger. “Since X number of prey can sustain only Y number of tigers, surplus tigers will either die fighting one another; or, more likely, be pushed out to the buffer areas or disperse – ideally to other forest areas – especially in the case of males,” says wildlife biologist Milind Pariwakam. “When such tigers succeed, they re-colonise new areas. Or they die trying.”Story continues below this ad Rapid development of road, rail and irrigation infrastructure, coupled with large-scale mining and deforestation, have broken much of central India’s forest connectivity. The result: the ‘surplus’ tigers cannot move safely between forests, leaving them exposed to people and situations of conflict. Surplus management But, restoring forest connectivity via natural dispersal is a long-term solution. That is why, say experts, knowing carrying capacity is much simpler than finding a solution for the surplus tiger population. “Translocation or assisted dispersal where natural corridors are missing and forest connectivity is broken is being tried out in some states. But there are not many good forests with sufficient prey animals for supporting a good number of tigers,” points out wildlife biologist Dr Dharmendra Khandal. WII Director Dr Gobind Sagar Bharwaj says habitat restoration is the way to go. “Attention is understandably on the tiger and other mega fauna. But we have to secure the primary resources for the food chain to hold. The health of our grasslands determines the prey base and ultimately tiger numbers,” he emphasizes.Story continues below this ad Pariwakam points out that vast areas in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Orissa support very few tigers at the present and, if restored, can potentially absorb the surplus from the tiger-rich forests. In the meantime, shifting surplus tigers to degraded forests with little or no wild prey is akin to shifting the problem of human-tiger conflict. Desired number The bigger the tiger base in an area, the higher the numbers of dispersing tigers. That is why managers look beyond the arithmetic of carrying capacity, to negotiable desired numbers. “Besides prey base, many other factors – cultural, economic, political – det
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