Shared custody of child Vs sole custody: Law panel seeks views

Whether shared parenting should be an option or a preference for the courts? Should such a presumption be dependent on the age or gender of the child?
These are some of the questions posed by the Law Commission in a consultation paper floated by it on shared parentage system in India.
The paper titled 'Adopting a shared parentage system in India' was floated against the backdrop of changes in the child custody arrangements world over.
Based on the inputs it receives, the Commission plans to prepare a report recommending a set of guidelines for the government by early next year.

"Numerous countries across the globe have adopted a preference for shared parentage systems over sole custody arrangements for child custody disputes post-divorce.
"This trend has arisen largely in a response to changing familial roles (male caretakers taking on more child rearing responsibilities) as well psychological studies revealing that the involvement of both parents in child rearing is preferable to sole custody arrangements," the Commission said.

Such an arrangement is being followed in US, Canada, Australia, UK and many other countries.
Such preferences for shared custody, the panel said, are often balanced with the 'best interest of the child' standard.
The best interest of the child standard is increasingly being utilised as the tool to evaluate child custody arrangements in many nations, particularly those who are signatories to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

It requires family courts to consider the well-being of the child as paramount, the Commission pointed out.
In India, the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 is a comprehensive legislation dealing with the appointment of a person as a guardian of a minor both in respect of his/her person or property.
The Act makes it possible for any person to apply to be appointed as a guardian of a minor. The Act also provides for appointment of joint guardians, both in respect of the person and property of the minor.
Section 17 of the Act, which is a key provision as regards appointment of a guardian, provides that a court shall be guided by what appears in the circumstances to be for the welfare of the minor.