After a long ordeal of almost two long years, a Sydney mother has been reunited with her 7 year old son.
The father who was estranged from the mother had allegedly kidnapped and taken the son to India on the basis that he wanted to attend his brother’s wedding in mid-2014. However after the wedding, the father announced to the mother that he did not wish to return to Australia nor did he wish to return their son to her. He indicated that mother and son could only be reunited if she was willing to resign her work in Australia and be prepared to join him and his parents in India along with their daughter.
Our client realised that she was in a terrible marriage and that her husband had in fact tricked her and left for India under false pretences taking their 4 year old son with the intention of never returning. To make matters worse, our client also discovered that he had depleted their bank account. Our client experienced significant challenges in maintaining a harmonious relationship with her husband’s in-laws and as a result she did not feel it was safe to return to India with her 2 year old daughter.
In light of the ongoing marital issues and the fact that the father had taken the son in a deceitful manner and had refused to allow her son to travel back to Australia, the mother commenced proceedings.
Proceedings in Sydney
Proceedings were commenced in Family Court of Australia in early 2015 and Orders were obtained whereby the father was required to return the child to the mother to Australia immediately. However as India is not part of the Hague Convention, the Orders obtained from Australia were unable to be enforced.
In light of this impediment, we assisted our client and facilitated the commencement of proceedings in India against the father in order achieve the outcomes of the Family Law court order, namely the return of the child to the mother.
Proceedings in India
After a year of protracted legal proceedings in India the Family Court in India handed down a Judgment in favour of the mother confirming that the son should in fact be handed over by the father to the mother.
The Strength of a Mother
Though the above case appears straightforward and uncomplicated, our client had had to deal with a number of significant challenges simultaneously. Our client had to deal with:
- issues surrounding the dissolution of their marriage and equitable partition of assets;
- the ongoing vexatious acts of an estranged husband; the processes to reunite with a son that had been taken away under false pretences;
- the challenges of having to work with two distinct legal jurisdictions and processes;
- the management of challenging financial circumstances; and
- having to balance work and parenting responsibilities as a single parent with no other support.
However this determined and amazing mother rose to challenge and hurdles that was generated through each of these situations and demonstrated remarkable tenacity and resilience to achieve a just outcome both here in Australia and India.
This is a remarkable story of a mother who faced numerous ordeals and demonstrated a woman’s determination, commitment, belief, and most importantly faith in the system to show that no forces or evils can in fact keep her doting children away from her.
To the world she might be an common, middle class mother but to her children and to all who know her, she is the unsung hero.
A Wonderful Result
Freedman & Gopalan has been honoured to have had the privilege of being the mother’s legal representatives in Australia and a close partner and advisor through the protracted proceedings in India, that were managed through our associate entity in Kerala, India. It is pleasing to that our year long relationship resulted in justice being delivered, and at the end of the day, a long lost son was in fact reunited with his mother.
We at Freedman & Gopalan take pride in helping people with the challenges that life throws at them, and delivering hope and justice when all seems lost.
We take a caring and compassionate approach to helping those in need, providing: pragmatic counsel; cost effective solutions; and working with an ethos of “people before profit”. As demonstrated in this recent case, we are there for our clients.