Kids choose mother's custody

Two children decided the result of their custody battle in an emotionally charged proceeding at the High Court yesterday.

The bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam said they would give the verdict as per the children's desire.

Eventually, the court ruled that the custody of the two children -- a 12-year old and a nine-year old -- be given to the plaintiff, the mother, resulting in their reunion after a year-long separation. They also added that their father could visit them when he wanted to.

Earlier when the children were brought to court, they immediately tried to rush towards their mother, who they had not seen in the past 13 months.

Their aunt tried to hold them back but the judges asked for the reunion to take place. The children immediately went and hugged their mother, who broke down in tears instantly.

The two children then called the father and requested their divorced parents to embrace and apologise to each other.

This set the tone for the rest of the afternoon.

Throughout the proceedings, the two children pled to the judge to get their parents back together. “We want nothing but our parents to get back together. We want to live with them,” one of them kept saying.

The children's unending faith towards both parents brought the judges, lawyers, family members and journalists present, to the brink of tears.

The children repeated that they did not want to leave either their father or mother.

At a stage, the court said it would pass the order according to the children's wishes. 

After hearing their statements inside the judge's chamber, the bench ruled that the two would remain in the custody of their mother and their father could visit and look after them.

The court fixed July 4 for passing further order on this issue and also asked them to appear before the court on that day.

The proceedings began after a writ petition was filed by the plaintiff in May this year, seeking its directive to getting her sons' custody.

Ruhul Quddus Kazal and KM Reyad Salimullah appeared for the plaintiff while Tapas Ball appeared for the defendant during yesterday's court proceedings.