Upholding actress Shweta Tiwari’s custody of her minor son, the Bombay high court on September 30 said that just because she was busy did not mean that she couldn’t look after him. A bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and Nijamoodin Jamadar ruled this in a habeas corpus petition by Shweta’s estranged husband, Abhinav Kohli. They, therefore, declined to direct a change in custody. Shweta and Abhinav live in different wings of the same housing complex in Bombay.
The HC bench, however, allowed Abhinav virtual access for minimum 30 minutes on weekdays and physical access for two hours on weekends.
Shweta and Abhinav got married in July 2013. Their son was born in November 2016. Kohli’s petition said that Shweta was extremely busy with her professional commitments which left her no time for parenting whereas he had decided not to take professional work and instead, devote his entire time, effort and attention to bringing up his son. In her reply, Shweta referred to police complaints about Abhinav proving to be a threat to her and her family members, particularly the child.
The judges also said, considering the child’s age, the tender years rule was brought into play.