Grandmother’s Plea Dismissed; Supreme Court Rules Atul Subhash’s Minor Son To Stay With His Mother

New Delhi: The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the custody of the four-year-old son of Atul Subhash, the Bengaluru techie who died by suicide, will remain with the child’s mother Nikita Singhania.

After Subhash had taken his life on December 9 accusing his estranged wife and her family of harassment, the techie’s mother Anju Devi had moved the top court seeking her grandson’s custody.

However, a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and SC Sharma turned down Anju’s plea after interacting with the child through video link.

The grandmother’s plea was dismissed, with the court saying it was not entertaining the petition.

After the hearing began, the petitioner sought a week’s time to file a more detailed affidavit, reported NDTV.

But the two-member bench dismissed that request.

“This is a habeas corpus (petition)… we want to see the child. Produce the child. The court will take up the matter after some time,” the court said.

The counsel of Nikita Singhania said the child will be produced within 30 minutes.

After a break of 45 minutes, the boy appeared on a video link. At that point of time, the court went offline — except for the link to the child — to protect his identity.

Earlier this month, Nikita had told the court the boy was studying in a boarding school in Faridabad, and that he would be withdrawn to accompany his mother to Bengaluru.

“We will take the child to Bengaluru… We have taken the boy out of school. The mother must be in Bengaluru to fulfil bail conditions,” her lawyer had said.

A bench of Justice Nagarathna and Justice N Kotiswar Singh then said the child had to be produced before it for the next hearing.

Subhash’s mother Anju approached the Supreme Court for custody of her grandson after Nikita, her mother and brother were arrested on charges of abetting the techie’s suicide.

All of them were granted bail earlier this month.