Supreme Court clears mother's move to UK and steps in to save historic Delhi library

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for a mother to take her two children to the United Kingdom, reversing a lower court's decision that had branded her career-driven moves across India as a "nomadic life".

In a separate intervention, the court has also taken emergency notice of the planned relocation of Delhi’s historic Central Secretariat Library, demanding answers over reports that its 8.5 lakh books have no adequate home in the revamped Central Vista.

Mother wins custody battle to relocate to UK

The custody dispute, which had dragged on for over seven years, pitted an academic mother with a doctorate in engineering against her estranged husband. The mother had recently secured a lecturer post at the University of Hull in the UK, earning around ‹3 lakh a month.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta strongly praised the mother's efforts to secure financial stability despite "multi-pronged litigation" from her husband. The father, a part-time lecturer earning ‹17,000 a month, had challenged her moves and filed numerous complaints with her employers. Previous family court orders had penalised the mother for moving cities for work, granting custody to the father.

The Supreme Court rejected that logic. It noted that the father had channelled his energy into litigation rather than improving his financial prospects. It also dismissed the idea that the grandparents' ‹1 lakh monthly pension could offset the father's low income, ruling that child support is the primary duty of parents themselves.

Crucially, the judges pointed to a pending criminal case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against the father. This followed allegations of sexual abuse made by the couple's 13-year-old son to a psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS). The court ruled that with a chargesheet already filed in the POCSO case, giving custody to the father would be "totally unwarranted and unjustified."

The mother is now permitted to take her son and seven-year-old daughter to the UK, though she must file details of their schooling within six weeks.

Court steps in to protect historic library

Away from domestic disputes, a separate bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Sanjeev Sachdeva took suo motu cognisance of the fate of the Central Secretariat Library.

The 135-year-old institution, which holds over 8.5 lakh books, is currently housed in Shastri Bhawan. The building is slated for demolition under the central government's Central Vista redevelopment project.

The court registered a case titled "In Re: 135-Yr-Old Library 8.5 Lakh Books– And No Room In The New Central Vista Plan" following warnings of inadequate space.

While the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs insisted on social media that space is earmarked for the library within the Kartavya Path redevelopment, internal government correspondence suggests a deep disagreement. In January, the housing ministry offered just two rooms in the Kartavya Bhawan-2 complex. The Culture Ministry, which runs the library, shot back in February, stating the space was "inadequate to accommodate the full collection" and making a complete relocation impossible.

The library was established in 1891 as the Imperial Secretariat Library in Kolkata, moving to Delhi's North Block in the 1930s before settling in Shastri Bhawan in 1969. The court will examine how this vast archive will be preserved.