Delhi High Court: The Division Bench of V. Kameswar Rao* and Anoop Kumar Mendiratta, JJ., opined that the children room in every District must be kept open on Sundays and second Saturdays also between 10am to 5pm, so that any Court passing an order of visitation could also direct the visitation to be affected in Children Room, Family Court, District Court on every second Saturday and Sunday as well.
The present appeal was filed by appellant challenging the order dated 07-10-2023 passed by the Family Court-02, South East, Saket, New Delhi whereby the Family Court on an application filed by appellant under Section 151 of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 had granted the visitation rights to appellant.
Appellant’s contention was that the Family Court had not considered the other reliefs sought by him in the application and confined the relief of visitation that too for two hours between 11am to 1pm on every third Saturday in the Children Room, Family Court, Saket. Appellant submitted that the duration which was fixed did not entail a purposeful visitation for him and that the visitation must be allowed for Sunday as well, and for sufficient duration. Appellant further submitted that visitation must also be allowed on other days like on children’s birthday, grandmother’s birthday, grandparents’ anniversary, etc.
Respondent submitted that the relief granted by the Family Court was sufficient as the children were of tender age i.e., 4½ years and thus increase in the duration of visitation shall not be in their interest.
The Court after considering children’s age and the fact that limited duration had been granted by the Family Court, opined that appellant’s visitation right for visiting the children should be extended by one hour, that is, from 11am to 2pm on 3rd Saturday in the Children Room, Family Court, Saket in the presence of the counsellor and respondent. Further, the grandparents of the children could also avail the visitation right for 1½ hours, that is, between 11am to 12:30pm on the day of visitation.
The Court granted liberty to appellant to file an appropriate application before the Family Court-02 in case he seeks to increase in the duration of the visitation time and the same shall be decided by the Family Court in accordance with law.
The Court after noting that a plea of visitation to be undertaken even on Sundays was taken by appellant’s counsel, opined that District Courts were closed on Sundays and Second Saturday and as such no order for visitation could be passed on those days, but if the children’s room remain open, a party to a litigation could, have the benefit of visitation on these days as well.
The Court opined that the children room in every District must be kept open on Sundays and second Saturdays also between 10am to 5pm, so that any Court passing an order of visitation could also direct the visitation to be affected in Children Room, Family Court, District Court on every second Saturday and Sunday as well. The Court directed the Registrar General of this Court to issue necessary directions to the District Judge/Principal Judge, Family Courts of every District.
[Samrat Singh Rawat v. Poonam Rawat, 2023 SCC OnLine Del 7973, decided on 12-12-2023]
*Judgment authored by: Justice V. Kameswar Rao
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Appellant: Runjhun Garg, Himanshu Vats, Abhinav Aggarwal, Krishnagopal Abhay, Advocates
For the Respondent: Kajal Chandra, Shambhavi, Sakshi Anand, Advocates