Daughter refuses to hug woman; kids decline to live with parents

Rajneesh Lakhanpal

Ludhiana, May 14

Conflicts between husband and wife leading to separation are adversely affecting the behaviour, increasing stress level and bitterness amongst children.

A 16-year-old daughter flatly refused to hug her mother despite her insistence. The bitterness level was so high that the wet eyes of mother failed to convince the daughter, who was living with her father.

This was witnessed during a hearing at the Lok Adalat Bench, headed by Additional Principal Judge, Family Court, Rajvinder Singh. When Sessions Judge Munish Singal reached for the inspection of the Lok Adalat Bench, the negotiations were going on between the parties. Husband was a businessman from Jalandhar.

The woman requested the Sessions Judge that for once she wanted to hug her daughter but she was not ready for the same. Sensing the situation, the Sessions Judge called a counsellor to sit with the girl separately for counselling. But the situation did not change. Ultimately, the girl was only persuaded to just sit for a while with the mother.

Finally, the parties agreed to an amicable settlement. They agreed to file the joint mutual divorce petition and husband would pay

Rs 18 lakh to wife to end the ongoing litigation.

In another case before the Bench of Additional Principal Judge Dr Mandeep Mittal, in a divorce petition, the wife was seeking the custody of one son. Earlier, she had left the kids studying in Class IV and VI with father. When Dr Mittal asked them as any of them wanted to go with the mother, both refused.

Then woman insisted to have one sitting with kids separately. The judge sent them to their retiring room but after a few minutes kids came out and said we do not want to sit with her as she had left us long back. When the court asked that if they would live with their father, the innocent kids replied that their father is generally unavailable and meet them for a very short period. They wanted to live with their grandmother only who is taking care of them.

As many as 12,653 cases, out of 37,470, were settled amicably by different Lok Adalat Benches involving awards of Rs 1,67,08,51,549 in the National Lok Adalat organised by the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) under the supervision of DLSA Secretary-cum-CJM Raman Sharma.

The CJM said the DLSA provides free legal aid to all women, children, differently abled people, factory workers, members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and victims of disasters. He said if anybody wants any kind of legal aid, he can visit the office of the DLSA or call on toll-free number 1968.

He informed that civil cases like rent, bank recovery, revenue, electricity and water bills (excluding theft cases), service matters relating to pay and allowances and retirement benefits, Forest Act cases, disaster compensation, criminal compoundable cases, complaints under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act and covered matters would be taken up by the Courts of Civil Judges-cum- Judicial Magistrates in the Lok Adalat.